80stastic

TOTP 30 MAR 1995

Posted on October 20, 2023 by 80stastic

It’s another golden mic episode of TOTP and this week the slot goes to Ant & Dec or Ant & Declan as they introduce themselves. Or is it PJ & Duncan? Ant says that they are in fact them as well in the intro. They were releasing records as PJ & Duncan at this time (that didn’t change to Ant & Dec until 1996) but maybe they (or their management) were starting to think about a more long term brand. Certainly they’d decided on who should stand where by this point with Ant on the viewer’s left and Dec on the right. They had been positioned the other way round when performing on TOTP as opposed to presenting. I was wondering if this was their first such gig but Wikipedia tells me they’d already co-hosted a children’s programme on ITV called Gimme 5 before getting their own show on BBC. Little did we know at the time that they would come to dominate the TV schedules behemoth like for the next three decades.

Back in 1995 though, they were those fresh-faced lads from Byker Grove who sang that song “Let’s Get Ready To Rhumble” (amongst other hits) introducing Strike as the first act of the night. This is one of those occasional moments in chart history when the hit is much more well remembered than the artist. “U Sure Do” was said hit that actually made the UK Top 40 twice. It made No 31 in early January but was a much bigger hit just a few weeks later in the March and April of 1995 when it peaked at No 4. To be fair, although I used the word ‘occasional’, you could make a case that the vast majority of these 90s Eurodance hits were all about the tracks not the people behind them or indeed in front of them. For example, Strike had four further UK Top 40 hits but I defy anybody to name even one of them.

“U Sure Do” was based around the hook from Donna Allen’s 1987 hit “Serious” though I’m not sure I made that connection at the time. I also didn’t know that Strike’s singer – Victoria Newton – went onto record a dance version of All About Eve’s “Martha’s Harbour”. If that sounds like a hideous concept to you, then I urge you not to click on the video below. Trust your gut feeling. If only Victoria Newton hadn’t heard about the idea of making a dance track of All About Eve’s biggest hit, just like Julianne Regan couldn’t hear the the backing track on that infamous TOTP appearance.

Some R&B balladeering now from a new name in Brownstone. Whilst I do remember this group, I couldn’t have told you the name of any of their hits and certainly don’t recall the info shared by Ant & Dec in their intro about them being signed to Michael Jackson’s label MJJ Music. Indeed, the fact that Jacko even had his own record label can’t have registered with me at all. Apparently, it was in existence from 1993 to 2001 and was owned by Sony and distributed by Epic for whom Jackson recorded but was dissolved over disagreements between Sony and the singer over the promotion of his career. Brownstone were one of the label’s few artists to secure any hits with the other being 3T who famously were a trio made up of Jackson’s nephews. Nepotism much?

Brownstone made a splash when this single “If You Love Me” made the Top 10 in the US and UK but their subsequent releases suffered from a dose of diminishing returns and they split in 1998 before reforming in 2007 and 2019 though only Nichole ‘Nicci’ Gilbert remains from the original line up. As for this performance, the lady on the left surely couldn’t see out from under that lowered peaked cap could she? Had she seen Gabrielle with her eye patch look and said “Hold my beer”?

I’d have to say that Ant & Dec’s links weren’t the best at this stage of their career. Rather obvious and unfunny but they were both very young and not as slick the as they would become. The segue into “Two Can Play That Game” is especially lame unlike the song by Bobby Brown. Like “U Sure Do” earlier and many other hits around this time it seemed, this had already been a minor hit before bestriding the charts giant-like later in its life. Originally a No 38 in the Summer of 1994, it would go Top 3 nine months later.

Now usually it took a remix by a de jour producer to make a track a much bigger hit second time around and indeed “Two Can Play That Game” did have such a sprinkle of magic in the form of mixes by K Klass (the album version didn’t) but here’s the thing; as far as I can tell, these remixes were already present on the 1994 original release as well as the 1995 re-issue. Which begs the question why was it given a second chance? I guess either Bobby or his record company had faith in the track and thought it deserved a second chance. You can hear why I think. Steered by a hand-clapping beat with some strident house piano flourishes, it’s also got an uplifting chorus that I can imagine leant itself to much dancing with abandon on many a dance floor throughout the country. Limbs!

The success of the single prompted the release of a whole remix album of the same name later in the year which did what it said on the tin – featured remixes of some of his biggest songs that led to three more recycled tracks becoming UK Top 40 hits.

Finally! After weeks of wondering where all the Britpop artists were in this year of Britpop, here’s one that were really at the heart of it. Or were they? Well, Menswear were a bit of a conundrum. In some quarters, they were very much seen as manufactured to be part of the burgeoning scene rather than growing out of it organically and therefore not genuine nor credible. There was some truth in that of course. First mentioned in a Select magazine article by founding members Johnny Dean and Chris Gentry before the band even existed, the hype surrounding them was huge. Having put the idea out there, Dean and Gentry decided that they should probably form the band for real and lo, Menswear were born to the world in the epicentre of Britpop, namely Camden. A debut gig had the record labels frothing at the mouth, besides themselves with fear at the thought of missing out on the next big thing. In the end, London Records won the race at the cost of £90,000. A £500,000 publishing deal (they only had seven songs in their repertoire at the point of signing!) and an NME front cover followed before this TOTP appearance. They hadn’t even released anything at the time!

As if the buzz around them wasn’t big enough, they made their first single “I’ll Manage Somehow” a limited edition release with, as Dec says in his intro, just 5,000 copies made available. Ant wasn’t the only one asking the question “Why?”. Around this time, I was doing a further education night course about music of the 70s. One of my fellow course members was a guy called Dominic who had heard about this band called Menswear but was mightily pissed off that he couldn’t find their single anywhere to purchase due to its limited release. Knowing I worked in a record shop, he asked me what it was all about. I said I thought it was a marketing strategy to create a clamour for the product at the counter but Dominic wasn’t having it and thought it was daft. He had a point. In the end, “I’ll Manage Somehow” somehow managed a peak of No 49. Wouldn’t it have been better to mass produce it and give them the chance of a bigger debut hit or was I missing something? The follow up single “Daydreamer” made No 14 so clearly that was made more widely available. It was their third single “Stardust” though that did it for me. Hopefully we’ll get to see that one on a future TOTP repeat.

Having said that, watching this performance back some 28 years later, I’m not sure if the profile the band attained is quite so obviously explained. They made a decent sound to my ears but it was hardly revolutionary and indeed left them open to the same accusations of plagiarism that plagued their Britpop contemporaries Elastica. I’d forgotten Johnny Dean’s military style tunic that he wore here. A few short years later, The Libertines would copy the look in their own brief blaze of hype and glory. So was the Menswear ballyhoo that bad? After all, they were hardly the first to go there. Sigue Sigue Sputnik did it much more outrageously and ridiculously back in 1986 and were vilified extensively and that thing about being the pin up band for a musical movement? Wasn’t that what Spandau Ballet were for the New Romantics? Unlike Spandau though, Menswear weren’t able to extend their life beyond their Britpop origins and when that came to an end, so did they. Drummer Matt Everett would become a writer, presenter and sidekick to ex-Radio 6 DJ Shaun Keaveny whilst lead singer Johnny Dean became an advocate for the National Autistic Society after being diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and briefly restarted Menswear with a new line up in 2013. He ditched the project shortly afterwards though following a change of heart.

When you’ve had a name as big as Prince on your show recently, I guess you’re going to make use of his performance more than once even if you couldn’t actually see his face. Yes, it’s that former ‘exclusive’ appearance by New Power Generation promoting their “Get Wild” single where Prince hides his fizzog throughout it behind a veil in protest at the actions of his record company Warners with whom he was in dispute. With the Purple One using NPG as a means of releasing material whilst hamstrung by Warners and the latter retaliating by issuing a single called “Purple Medley”, it set up a chart battle of sorts though it would hardly rival the Blur v Oasis bout later in the year. Prince would finally disentangle himself from Warners around 1996.

He wasn’t the first pop star to use the gimmick of a mask of course. Here’s David Soul pre his Starsky and Hutch days as The Covered Singer…

He wouldn’t be the last either with the advent of the TV show The Masked Singer being syndicated around the world and featuring actual pop stars…

From one music legend to another. After Prince comes The Boss! The reason behind Bruce Springsteen’s appearance here seems to be to promote his recently released No 1 “Greatest Hits” album from which “Murder Incorporated” was one of four new tracks. I say ‘new’ but it was actually a really old song that was written during the “Born In The USA” album sessions but which didn’t make the cut. In fact, “Murder Incorporated” was going to be the album’s title at one point. It got reactivated for Bruce’s first compilation album and fast became a crowd favourite when played live. It’s a good song I think that doesn’t sound out of place next to some of the other more well known and celebrated tracks on the album. It was never released as a single in the UK (in fact it was only released in Canada) hence the big TOTP caption ‘Album Track’.

The “Greatest Hits” would go multi platinum but Bruce chose to follow it up with an album that would be his first to fail to make the Top 10 in the US for two decades. “The Ghost Of Tom Joad” was his second acoustic collection after “Nebraska” and on the one hand didn’t seem like an obvious direction to go in but on the other it made perfect sense. Draw a line under one phase of your career by reminding everyone how great it was with a Best Of and then deliver something unexpected. That’s how you maintain a career that’s lasted over 50 years I guess.

Snap! were still having hits in 1995? Well, yes they were but both visually and sonically you would be forgiven for believing that this wasn’t the same group that exploded onto the charts in 1990 with “The Power”. Rapper Turbo B had long gone and they were on to their fourth singer in Summer after Jackie Harris, Thea Austin and Niki Haris before her. In this performance with Summer and her two backing vocalists/dancers in crimson ball gowns, they look an era away from those early days which I guess they were. Their sound had also transformed over the years to the point that they were now peddling trance flavoured pop with “The First The Last Eternity (Till The End)” a prime example. With a title that seemed to borrow an awful lot from that old Barry White hit, it consisted of Summer repeating the word ‘eternity’ over and over until it sounded like she was singing ‘eternally’. It does, however, have a deeply hypnotic quality to it that kind of draws you in…and in…and…No! Snap out of it! Ahem.

“The First The Last Eternity (Till The End)” would make a respectable No 15 on the UK charts but the majority of their final hits would be remixes of past glories, mainly “Rhythm Is A Dancer” which provided their last Top 40 entry in 2008. It wasn’t their first hit but it was their last meaning Snap!’s success didn’t last an eternity.

Whilst I can appreciate their place in musical history, I was never a massive Nirvana fan. Consequently, by association, I was never that interested in Hole either. The band started by Courtney Love who was, of course, married to Kurt Cobain always seemed to be inextricably linked to Nirvana because of that relationship. Working in record shops throughout the 90s, obviously I was aware of their releases and the names of their albums but I never had that much interest in hearing them. Plenty of people did though. I don’t think I understood quite how many records they sold. Literally millions of copies of their second and third albums in America achieving platinum status. It wasn’t quite the same story in the UK though those two albums “Live Through This” and “Celebrity Skin” did shift 100,000 units each. In terms of singles, Hole had never had a Top 40 hit in this country until “Doll Parts”. Watching this performance doesn’t make me feel I mistakenly deprived myself of their oeuvre I have to say. It’s all a bit too lo-fi and grunge- high for me and I don’t think I could listen to Courtney Love’s voice on repeat that much.

Despite not being a fan, I do have a Hole story. A month after this TOTP aired, the band played a gig at the Manchester Academy venue. A quick search of the internet tells me it was actually Sunday 30th April. I was living in Manchester at the time and my wife and I had been for a walk somewhere and on the way back home, passed by the Academy. The ticket touts were out in force and they seemed to be particularly interested in trying to flog me one. Approach after approach was made to the point where I was getting annoyed. “No mate, I’m not interested”; my reply was almost becoming a chant. I turned to my wife and, exasperated, said “What’s going on? Why do they keep trying to flog a ticket to me?”. My wife looked me up and down and then pointed to my T-shirt. “Maybe that’s got something to do with it?”. I’d completely forgotten that I was wearing a Nirvana T-shirt. Now you would be forgiven for asking the question “Hang on, I thought you said you weren’t that into Nirvana so what gives with the T-shirt?”. Well, there’d been some sort of Nirvana promotion at the Our Price store where I worked whereby customers got a feee T-shirt if they bought the album or something. Anyway, there were loads left over so they were dished out to the staff and I happened to have mine on the day of the Hole gig completely by chance. For the record, I didn’t buy a ticket for David gig.

Ant & Dec finally start to get into their stride with their links with a nice Morecambe and Wise style routine around the No 1 record “Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)” by The Outhere Brothers. That intro is the only good thing about this whole footnote in UK musical history when the public lost their minds not just once but twice (there’s another No 1 coming in a few weeks) over these two dolts. The whole appeal of this record it seems to me was its sexually explicit lyrics which, of course, we don’t hear in this performance. You wouldn’t have heard them on the edit version played on the radio either. It kind of makes this TOTP appearance slightly redundant. Still, the studio audience seem to be having a great time whooping it up in call and response fashion.

We should perhaps be thanking our lucky stars for small mercies. If it weren’t for Take That releasing a new single around this time, “Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)” would surely have stayed at No 1 for longer. In total, it spent six weeks inside the Top 2 with only one of those in the top spot.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Strike	U Sure Do	I sure don’t – no
2	Brownstone	If You Love Me	No
3	Bobby Brown	Two Can Play That Game	Nope
4	Menswear	I’ll Manage Somehow	Couldn’t get a copy despite working in a record shop
5	New Power Generation	Get Wild	Nah
6	Bruce Springsteen	Murder Incorporated	Not released as a single
7	Snap!	The First The Last Eternity (Till The End)	Negative
8	Hole	Doll Parts	Not my bag really
9	The Outhere Brothers	Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)	NO!

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001rb0b/top-of-the-pops-30031995

TOTP 23 MAR 1995

Posted on October 17, 2023 by 80stastic

Ah crap! It’s been a good run but it’s finally come to an end. Simon ‘Smug’ Mayo is back hosting TOTP! He says later in this show that he hasn’t been on presenting duties since the previous October. I haven’t checked to see if that’s true but regardless, I’d have gladly never seen the w****r anchoring the show again. He always seemed to me to treat it as his own personal promotional vehicle, making it all about him with his annoying, cryptic one liners and ridiculous tailoring.

He starts off by saying that there’s no public flogging on tonight’s show. What?! Was this something to do with the sentencing of Eric Cantona for his kung fu style assault of a Crystal Palace fan which took place on the very same day this TOTP went out? Eric got 14 days in prison pending an appeal which he subsequently won and saw his sentence reduced to 120 hours of community service. So, not exactly a public flogging then Simon.

With the first example of Mayo’s inane drivel dispensed with, it’s time for the opening act who is Sean Maguire. He was the ex-EastEnders and Grange Hill actor who had decided that he was wasting his time with all that TV work and what the world really needed was to bear witness to his singing talents while he ‘testified’* on stage. So far, he’d made a decent stab at the transformation with a couple of middling sized hits the previous year and now he was back with his third single “Suddenly”. Nothing to do with the Billy Ocean hit of the same name, this was just more pop-by-numbers stuff designed to appeal to the teen market with an instrumental break written in to allow for the obligatory dance routine to be included. I mean, it’s a catchy little ditty but it’s hardly a pop music masterpiece. Even so, it had more longevity than Sean’s fashion gimmick which saw him with a top tied around his waist even though he was wearing a jacket over his singlet. Why did he need the jacket if he was too warm to wear the top? This didn’t make any sense at all. Maybe it was de rigueur fashion accessorising in 1995? We’ll certainly see more examples of it later on in the show.

Mayo really is a prick. In his second intro, he makes a reference to Peter Tatchell, the human and gay rights campaigner when announcing Tin Tin Out as the next artist. Why? Well, I think that he was referring to a current news story about Tatchell’s involvement with the direct action group OutRage! who ran a campaign to out 20 MPs who publicly supported anti-gay legislation whilst secretly living gay personal lives. One such MP was Sir James Kilfedder who died of a heart attack three days before this TOTP was broadcast just as the Belfast Telegraph ran a story that he was one of the politicians targeted. A sensitive story you would think. Not to Mayo. That’s source material for a cheap line while he presents a pop music programme. Tin Tin Out? Geddit? Like I said, a prick.

Anyway, back to the music and Tin Tin Out were an electronic music duo who mixed hits for some of the biggest names like Erasure and Pet Shop Boys but they also had a sideline in hits under their own name. “Always (Something There To Remind Me)” was their second such hit peaking at No 14. A version of the Bacharach and David song that Sandie Shaw took to the top of the charts in 1964, it was a cover in the loosest sense of the word. Basically they took the song’s distinctive melody, added a house beat to it and roped in vocalist Vanessa Contenay-Quinones of the duo Espiritu to sing (rather badly here I would add) the song’s title repeatedly. It sounds horrible to my ears. Perhaps to offset this infernal racket, there are four half naked backing dancers (with their tops tied around their waists as per Sean Maguire) making the female members of the audience react as if it were The Chippendales they were watching.

Tin Tin Out would find further success later in the decade with covers of The Sundays (“Here’s Where The Story Ends”) and Edie Brickell (“What I Am”). The latter was with ex-Spice Girl Emma Bunton which was released on the same day as Gerri Halliwell’s “Lift Me Up” causing a chart battle to see who would be No 1. In the end, Ginger won out over Baby.

By the way, if I wanted a cover of “Always (Something There To Remind Me)” – which I did apparently in 1983 as I bought this single – then there’s always this…

I may have succumbed to some ropey old synth pop version of a 60s classic in 1983 but there was no way I was falling for this next load of old tosh twelve years later. I know we’ve seen many an act bag themselves a huge hit and basically just repeat the song with a few tweaks for the follow up over the years but this by Rednex really was scandalous. After the horror that was their No 1 single “Cotton Eye Joe”, they almost literally put out the same record again for their next one. As a result, “Old Pop In An Oak” was every bit as dreadful as its predecessor. Despite not making the Top 10, enough poor saps bought it in sufficient quantities to send it to No 12. What the hell happened people?!

In 1993, Duran Duran pulled off the seemingly impossible by escaping the from the box the public had put them in labelled ‘They used to be famous in the 80s’ and coming up with a hit single that put them back into the Top 10 for the first time in four years with “Ordinary World”. Not only that but its parent album was a million seller in the US and went gold in the UK. They were back and had momentum on their side. What they did with that momentum was tantamount to commercial and artistic suicide. Whose idea was it to record an album of cover versions? Or perhaps the question should be ‘whose idea was it to record an album of those cover versions?’.

Take the lead single from the “Thank You” album for example. Wasn’t Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” seen as sacrosanct at the time? What were they boys thinking? However, the phrase ‘at the time’ really should have been in italics for it has been covered by many an artist since and I don’t remember the same amount of cries of heresy as were reserved for the Duran boys? Indeed, just three months after this, Kirsty MacColl released her own version with Evan Dando of The Lemonheads to promote her Best Of album “Galore” and I’m pretty sure there weren’t any cries of “Heresy!” from anyone. By 1997, just about every big name in the music business had covered it (sort of). A BBC promotional video to showcase their musical diversity featuring the likes of David Bowie, Elton John, Bono, Heather Small, Brett Anderson of Suede, Tom Jones, Gabrielle, Evan Dando (again!) and perhaps most memorably Dr John (“such a poyfick day”) was absolutely fêted by the public; so much so that it was released as a single and went to No 1 for three weeks. All of this leads me to believe that it was more about who was doing the cover version and it was a case of everybody else = good, Duran Duran = bad.

Or maybe it wasn’t even about this track? After all, Lou Reed is on record as saying the Duran version was the best recording of any of his songs. Was it the other covers on “Thank You” that offended so? Taking on songs by Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and Iggy Pop was ill judged but to navigate “White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)” by Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel and Public Enemy’s “911 Is A Joke” was clinically insane. The readers of Q magazine were so incensed that in a 2006 poll, they voted “Thank You” the worst album of all time. So was it that bad? Well, I’ve often found myself on the wrong side of popular opinion and I did buy a couple of Duran Duran albums in the 80s but on the whole, even I would say it was a not a clever career move. As so it proved. After the critical backlash “Thank You” received, the band floundered. Follow up album “Medazzaland” didn’t even get released in Europe with the record buying public seemingly only interested in their past glories – a Best Of collection called “Greatest” made No 4 when released in 1998. It would take a reunion of the classic line up in 2004 to return them towards the top of the charts when the “Astronaut” album made No 3.

Talking of the classic line up, that’s Roger Taylor on drums in this TOTP performance which took me by surprise as he hadn’t had anything to do with the band since leaving in 1986. Apparently he played on three tracks for the “Thank You” album and appeared in the video for “Perfect Day”. Meanwhile, bassist John Taylor seems to have taken leave of his fashion senses – a checked shirt matched with stripey trousers?!

Next a band who in many ways replaced Duran Duran in the affections of the teen market as the boys from Birmingham’s popularity dwindled in the late 80s. Wet Wet Wet were on a commercial high come the mid 90s. They’d had that single in 1994 at No 1 for fifteen weeks and now were back with a new hit in the Top 10. Of course, also like Duran Duran, they’d suffered their own decline in approval around 1989-1991 but that was all behind them now.

Following the biggest selling single of the year though was no easy task and “Julia Says” predictably couldn’t get anywhere near the sales of “Love Is All Around”. A high of No 3 was nothing to be sniffed at though even if the track itself wasn’t their strongest by a mile and it did help propel parent album “Picture This” to No 1 and a million sales. The hits kept coming until the end of the decade when Marti Pellow left the band to deal with his addiction issues. Wet Wet Wet are still a going concern but only just. Graeme Clark is the only remaining member of the original four piece line up though they have just announced a co-headlining tour with perennials of the nostalgia circuit Go West.

A case next of an appearance on TOTP not helping the sales of a single. “Original” by Leftfield featuring Tony Halliday was a new entry on the chart this week at No 18 but it would fall to No 35 seven days later despite the exposure of this performance. To be fair, the sound of the track didn’t exactly lend itself to a turn on TV. Its dark, dubby rhythms allied to Halliday’s almost deadpan vocals weren’t a perfect match for the medium of TV. Not that it isn’t a good track – it is but it acts almost as a visual downer in amongst the scream-inducing likes of Sean Maguire and Wet Wet Wet. Yes, there are some shrieks from the studio audience at times during “Original” but I get the impression they were falsely manufactured by the prompting of a floor manager.

Leftfield were, of course, influential production team Neil Barnes and Paul Daley who’d already had a hit under their own steam when they collaborated with John Lydon on the hypnotic “Open Up” in 1994. Toni Halliday was the lead singer with shoe gazing / dance beat hybrid Curve who’d had a handful of minor hit singles and two moderately successful albums to this point but whose legacy was to open the doors for the likes of Garbage to stride through. The album “Original” came from was the Mercury Prize nominated “Leftism” which is widely regarded as a milestone moment in dance music. Listening to this track now, it sounds very like Portishead to me whose album “Dummy” beat “Leftism” to the aforementioned Mercury Prize in 1995.

Next another band who like Wet Wet Wet are trying to follow up the biggest hit of their career. East 17 may not have had the best selling single of the year like the Wets but they did have the Christmas No 1 with all the sales that brings with it. Surely they couldn’t bag another chart topper with their next release? The short answer is no they couldn’t but they did keep their record of consecutive Top 10 hits going with “Let It Rain” taking the tally to five.

After the balladry of “Stay Another Day”, it was back to the sound on which they made their name – a hard-hitting, quick house beats dance floor-filler with a shouty yet catchy chorus. Its intro has Tony Mortimer going all Prince-like in “Let’s Go Crazy” mode, preaching from the pulpit before the beats hit about corridors of creation and colliding comets. Actually, he sounds a bit like Gary Clail of On-U Sound fame.

I’d have to say that apart from that intro, it’s not one of their most memorable tunes, not quite the banger it wants to be. Talking of which, Terry Coldwell (the bloke in the singlet on the left in this performance and only remaining original member still with the group) was in the news recently when he participated in a Counties Radio competition where presenter Justin Dealey would ask people in the street to sing a song and if he judged it good enough, he would buy them a hot dog as a reward. Snappily entitled ‘Sing a banger for a banger’, Coldwell rocked up and sang “Stay Another Day” but was denied his prize on account of sounding too authentic!

Mayo’s back with his crappy jokes now as he name checks the boxer Chris Eubank. As far as I understand it, by saying that Chris’s favourite song was “Hypnotised” by Simple Minds, he was referring to the fact that Eubank had recently lost his WBO super middleweight title to Steve Collins who had employed a guru to help him prepare mentally for the fight leading the press to believe that Collins was hypnotised for the bout. As Eubanks entered the ring before the fight, Collins sat in his corner motionless with headphones on, giving more credence to the rumour. None of this backstory makes Mayo’s quip funny though. Look mate, you’re just there to introduce the acts not perform a stand up routine. Just do your job.

Anyway, this was the second and last single from the “Good News From The Next World” album and it wasn’t very good. Not only was it completely soporific but I’m sure they’d used that bridge part before in a previous hit. In short, poor on quality and lethargic of effort. Must do better.

By the way, what was going on with guitarist Charlie Burchill?! Back in 1984, I’d desperately coveted his look but he just looks weird here. Horrible hair and a jacket that looks like he’d borrowed it from a pearly king. And I thought John Taylor’s wardrobe was suss.

The Comic Relief single “Love Can Build A Bridge” by Cher, Neneh Cherry, Chrissie Hynde and Eric Clapton has, rather predictably, brought an end to Celine Dion’s run at No 1 and to quote Captain Sensible’s 1982 hit “Wot”, ain’t I glad. Beware though. This respite will only last a week before a new menace takes residence in the top spot…

Just before the credits roll, there’s a plug for the BBC’s A Song for Europe show to pick this year’s UK Eurovision entry. It seemed quite an elongated process. There was a Top of the Pops Song for Europe Special show that Mayo mentions where each of the competing songs was showcased but that wasn’t the point where the winner was chosen. No, there was another programme a week later where that decision was made by a public vote. Each artist also had a celebrity champion advocating for them. Some of the entrants were well known – Londonbeat for example (who sounded dreadful in the clip at the end of this TOTP) plus recent chart stars Deuce and Samantha Fox fronting Sox. The rest of them I have no idea about except the actual winner of course who were Love City Groove who trounced everybody with over 140,000 votes. The artist placed second got 81,000 by comparison. Things didn’t work out for Love City Groove on the big day but that’s a story for another post.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Sean Maguire	Suddenly	As if
2	Tin Tin Out featuring Espiritu	Always (Something There To Remind Me)	No
3	Rednex	Old Pop In An Oak	Hell no!
4	Duran Duran	Perfect Day	Nope
5	Wet Wet Wet	Julia Says	Nah
6	Leftfield featuring Tony Halliday	Original	No but my wife might have had the album I think
7	East 17	Let It Rain	Negative
8	Simple Minds	Hypnotised	I did not
9	Cher, Neneh Cherry, Chrissie Hynde and Eric Clapton	Love Can Build A Bridge	Not even for charity

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001rb00/top-of-the-pops-23031995

TOTP 16 MAR 1995

Posted on October 14, 2023 by 80stastic

I can’t remember if I watched this particular TOTP but if I did then I’m pretty sure that I would have had my mind on something else. Immediately after it finished, my beloved Chelsea were playing a European Cup Winners Cup quarter-final. Trailing 1-0 from the first leg, they were attempting to reach a European semi-final for the first time in 24 years. It may not seem it to the club’s younger fanbase who have been used to continuous success but this was a big deal. So big that I recall turning the TV off with minutes still to play and Chelsea winning 2-0 for fear of a late away goal that would knock us out. My nerves couldn’t take it. I turned the TV back on to the sight of a celebrating Chelsea crowd and realised we were through. It would all end in failure (as it always did back then) when we lost the semi-final to eventual winners Real Zaragoza.

I’m not sure that there’s a musical equivalent of that sort of experience. Having said that, just eleven days after this TOTP broadcast, a single was released that used to almost give me palpitations. Josh Wink’s “Higher State Of Consciousness” would set my nerves right on edge when it played on the shop stereo of the Our Price store I was working in. It literally could almost send me into a panic attack. Here’s hoping the tunes on tonight’s show aren’t as triggering.

By the way, tonight’s host is Lenny Henry as it’s Comic Relief the following day and so TOTP has been hijacked to help with the promotion. Lenny’s links are not especially funny but it’s hard not to warm to him.

Well, there’s nothing to make me nervous about the first artist on tonight. Alex Party are on to their third TOTP appearance I think with “Don’t Give Me Your Life”. If anything, I’m completely bored of this track. However, there is one thing that’s peaked my interest in this performance and that’s the presence of a drummer in amongst all the backing dancers leaping about. A drummer? On a Eurodance hit?! Obviously, they’ve got the obligatory two nerdy guys on keyboards in there but a drummer wasn’t usually in the mix surely? Has he always been there?

*quickly checks previous shows to feature Alex Party*

Well, he wasn’t there in the first appearance but then neither were the keyboard players but they were all on stage in the second appearance; I just can’t have noticed them. I wonder why there was the change of line up? Surely they weren’t looking for musicianship credibility?!

Next up is a group which was never going to raise my anxiety levels but this particular performance was a jolt to the system. A single by The Human League where Phil Oakey doesn’t do the lead vocals? This was out of the ordinary to sat the least. In fact it was more than out of the ordinary, it was the first time Susanne Sulley had been lead vocalist on one of the band’s singles. “One Man In My Heart” was the follow up to comeback hit “Tell Me When” which had rather surprisingly gone Top 10 at the start of the year. It also did pretty well chart wise achieving a respectable No 13 peak.

On first hearing, it sounds like a very one dimensional synth ballad but its simplicity is also its strength. An unfussy vocal from Susanne allied to a winning melody elevates it to something above the ordinary. Even the hackneyed ‘Ooh La La La’ backing from Phil and Joanne can’t bring it down. Sadly though, the only subsequent occasions that a Human League single would make the Top 20 would be rereleases of “Don’t You Want Me”. Having said that, the band don’t seem weighed down by their illustrious early 80s history but rather embrace it. They are almost constantly on tour it seems churning out the hits and have only released two albums of new material in the 28 years since “Octopus” (parent album of “One Man In My Heart”) came out. One last thing, what is that contraption that Phil is ‘playing’?

And so to the song that is the whole point of Sir Lenny Henry being on the show tonight – the Comic Relief single. This year it was no novelty song à la “The Stonk” or “Stick It Out” but a proper composition – “Love Can Build A Bridge”, a big country ballad by mother and daughter duo The Judds. It seems rather unfair but I’m guessing that Comic Relief were canny enough to know that The Judds weren’t a big enough name to promote the single (even though it’s their own song) and so roped in four mega star names to do the job. Cher, Chrissie Hynde, Neneh Cherry and Eric Clapton met the brief and indeed would carry it all the way to No 1.

In his intro, Lenny implores the watching TV audience that whatever we do on Comic Relief day, not to do nothing and that we could at least by the single. Well, I didn’t I have to admit but I would hope that I made a donation. They would have involved picking up the (landline) phone, ringing in to the dedicated number and actually speaking to someone. Cast your mind back even further to Live Aid and Bob Geldof was telling us to go to the post office to get a postal order mailed out. It’s so much easier these days. Just text a message on your mobile to a number and you’re done. Try explaining that to the kids today. Though I’m glad to have lived through the eras I did, there’s no denying technology does have some benefits.

Apart from the fear that I may not have made a donation to Comic Relief, there was nothing about the last song to make me anxious. However, my calmness is under threat immediately from the next act. Be afraid. Be very afraid. The time of The Outhere Brothers is upon us. For reasons unclear, these two berks racked up four UK Top 10 hits this year including two (TWO!) No 1s. Quite why the British record buying public had a vulnerability for unequivocally crap records remains inexplicable to me. There must be a thesis or at least a dissertation in it for somebody.

The first of those two chart toppers was “Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)” which gained notoriety for its sexually explicit lyrics (I looked them up, they are very explicit). Now of course, the version performed on TOTP was the radio edit (or clean version) with the offending lyrics removed which pretty much just left a moronic chant of the single’s title. However, the CD single included the explicit version as part of the extra tracks meaning many a young record buyer ended up with access to innocence corrupting material. Such was the outrage that it even promoted a question in Parliament (raised by the MP from my hometown of Worcester as it happens). Perhaps nobody should have been surprised given the titles of the duo’s first two singles – “Pass The Toilet Paper” and the delightfully named “Fuk U In The Ass”. Its notoriety probably helped propel it to the chart summit. I know from working in record shops for years that we never sold those clean versions of records by the likes of Eminem. The youth all wanted to hear the cussing.

The performance here is deeply unimpressive. Malik and Hula (they weren’t really brothers I don’t think) are wearing basketball outfits for no discernible reason and there are the obligatory scantily clad women dancing behind them. I can feel my anxiety levels rising. Not because of any potentially explicit lyrics but because with this crap going to No 1, we’re going to have to endure it at least once more.

Next a band whose name sounds like it should strike a note of trepidation and indeed they were named after a 1986 horror film but, in truth, Terrorvision weren’t that scary. However, they did have a rather spooky chart statistic which was that their last five singles had peaked between No 29 and 21. This next release – “Some People Say” – would make that six when it got to a high of No 22. The fifth and last single taken from their “How To Make Friends And Influence People” album, I can’t say I remember it at all. Maybe it was unfortunate to have been around at the same time as a similarly entitled single – “Some Might Say” by Oasis was released the following month and would become their first No 1. Terrorvision never had their own chart topper though they came close with “Tequila” in 1999 which peaked at No 2.

Clearly taking a leaf out of her brother’s book of ‘How many singles is too many to release from one album?’*, Janet Jackson is back with the seventh from her 1993 “Janet” album. Yes, you read that right; 1993. Janet was still releasing singles from an album that came out eighteen months previously.

*Answer: There is no limit if your surname is Jackson

“Whoops Now” was a double A-side with “What’ll I Do” and was a hidden track on the album but was deemed commercial enough for a single release. It’s a fairly unremarkable Motown pastiche to my ears; a bit too cute for its own good. The performance here is an ‘exclusive’ live performance from Oslo and to be honest, Janet’s exhortations to the audience to want to hear them make some noise (or words to that effect) whilst singing a song so slight is almost comical.

“Whoops Now” made No 9 on the UK Top 40 but it wouldn’t be long before Janet was back. Just two months later, her duet with brother Michael entitled “Scream” would go all the way to No 2.

Right, if you’re confused as I was about Lenny Henry’s intro for this next track, it’s because we had forgotten about this Levi’s 501 advert. Maybe watch this before proceeding further and it should clear that mystery up…

…all done? Up to speed now? Great! Yes, after a Levi’s advert turned an unknown song by a fabricated band the previous year (“Inside” by Stiltskin) into a No 1 record, the marketing machine rolled on into 1995 and yet again made a huge hit out of a relatively obscure track. The lucky recipients of the Levi’s magic dust this time though were the latest project of a man who was no stranger to chart hits.

It had been seven years since the The Housemartins had called it a day and in that time, whilst Paul Heaton found mass appeal with the wry pop melodies of The Beautiful South, Norman Cook had turned his attention to the world of dance music. Success came early and in some style with Cook’s group Beats International securing a 1990 No 1 with “Dub Be Good To Me”. There was only one way to to go after that though and that particular project withered away. The ever inventive Cook was soon back in the saddle with his next vehicle Freak Power whose 1993 debut single “Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out” was a minor chart hit when it made No 29. Somebody at Levi’s (or the advertising agency working for them) must have noticed the track as just under eighteen months later it was chosen to soundtrack the next 501 campaign. You can hear why. A super slick soul groove with a touch of funk that saw the bass guitar supplying the hooky riff, it sounded familiar the first time you heard it with Gill Scott-Heron springing to mind. It turns out though that the bass line was appropriated from a tune called “Flo” by Red Holt from the 70s. Though that name means nothing to me, I’m sure Norman would have had a copy of said track in his extensive vinyl collection.

The reach of the advert ensured that “Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out” would become a major hit second time around peaking at No 3 though, if pressed, I would have guessed that it made it to the top of the charts like Stiltskin did a year before. I like the fact that lead singer Ashley Slater pulls out a trombone during this performance but then he had been a member of jazz big band/orchestra Loose Tubes in the 80s. In terms of my nerves with regards to this hit, the only thing concerning me was the potential for an unfortunate typo when it came to the name of Loose Tubes.

Lenny Henry might be experiencing some nerves of his own as he introduces the next artist on the show but they’re the good type rather than the anxiety inducing variety. It’s only his all time hero Prince. Sadly for Lenny, the Purple One was in the middle of his dispute with Warners and so what we get here is Prince pretending he’s not really there. As a way of releasing material outside of his existing contract, Prince used his backing band since 1990 New Power Generation to vent his creative spleen. “Get Wild” was the lead single from the band’s second album “Exodus” and, in line with their earlier output, it’s a supercool funk work out in the style of Parliament. For this performance, Prince has assumed one of his multiple alter egos, in this case, Tora Tora and appears on stage in a gauze scarf totally obscuring his face. If you peer closely, I think you can determine that it is Prince but I can’t help thinking it kind of diluted the experience of him appearing on the show.

In the Top 40 at the same time as “Get Wild” was something called “Purple Medley” which, as it says in the title, was a mashup of Prince hits and well known tracks either re-recorded or sampled. Released by Warners, it might appear as if this was the record company trying to squeeze every last drop of revenue from their artist’s back catalogue but it was actually Prince who was behind the single in an attempt to fulfil his contractual obligations with Warners. No doubt he would have raised a wry smile when “Get Wild” peaked at No 19 and “Purple Medley” spluttered to a high of No 33.

Finally! It’s the last of seven weeks at the top of the charts for Celine Dion with “Think Twice”. There was no rapid descent of the charts for the single though as it would spend another two weeks inside the Top 5 and a further four after that within the Top 40. In total it would spend thirty-one weeks on the UK Top 100. My nerves were officially frazzled.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Alex Party	Don’t Give Me Your Life	No
2	The Human League	One Man In My Heart	Don’t think I did
3	Cher / Chrissie Hynde / Neneh Cherry / Eric Clapton	Love Can Build A Bridge	I did not
4	The Outhere Brothers	Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)	Hell no
5	Terrorvision	Some People Say	Nope
6	Janet Jackson	Whoops Now	Negative
7	Freak Power	Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out	Nah
8	New Power Generation	Get Wild	It’s a no from me
9	Celine Dion	Think Twice	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001r3g8/top-of-the-pops-16031995

TOTP 09 MAR 1995

Posted on October 11, 2023 by 80stastic

We’re well into March 1995 with these TOTP repeats and I’m pretty sure that work wise back then, I was firmly ensconced back at the Our Price store in Stockport following the closure of the shop in Market Street, Manchester. I say ‘back’ as I’d spent a couple of months there in the Autumn of 1993. It hadn’t gone well and I’d been glad to get out of there but now I was on my way back after spending the whole of 1994 in Manchester. I would spend the next four years there. It had its ups and downs but on the whole it would turn out to be a much better experience.

Right at the start of my time there, an album by the first artist on tonight’s show was released which would stay with me until the present day. Its lead single would provide the band with their biggest commercial success but it would also prove to be completely divisive in terms of its appeal. Some may even argue that it did them more harm than good in terms of credibility. The Boo Radleys had been in existence since 1988 but were largely unknown to the great British public despite their 1993 album “Giant Steps” being voted album of the year by NME readers. All that was to change in 1995 with the release of their fourth album “Wake Up!” and its lead single “Wake Up Boo!”. Beloved of breakfast DJs up and down the land (especially Radio 1’s Chris Evans who had a jingle made for his show based on it), it’s an almost perfect example of the bright, bouncy, exuberant pop song. It was impossible to ignore so in your face was it as it dragged you kicking and screaming from your bed and demanded that you face the new day in front of you. It was everywhere and yet that ubiquity worked against it. Some people couldn’t (and still to this day can’t) stand it. Perhaps for the existing fanbase it felt like a betrayal and that the band had sold out and for the wider general public, was it that the track was just a bit too much for the innate misery of the national identity?

For my part, I liked the way it raced along and combined some lush harmonising with perky brass parts. However, it wasn’t that No 9 hit which made me invest in the album. I much preferred the follow up single “Find The Answer Within” which, having been the catalyst for me to purchase “Wake Up!”, led me to other gems within its twelve tracks like “Twinside” and “Wilder”. I stand by the album and still listen to it nearly 30 years later. For once, I was in sync with the rest of the record buying public as it went to No 1 and briefly The Boo Radleys were the bomb.

Inevitably though, they got shoved in the box labelled Britpop despite rejecting such associations (did anybody ever admit to being a Britpop band?) and as the movement floundered so did their commercial fortunes. Subsequent album “C’mon Kids” was perceived as a deliberate attempt to dismantle their pop star / hitmaker status (an accusation the band deny) but it is certainly true that the sound of it was less commercial than its predecessor. The writing was on the wall by the release of their sixth studio album “Kingsize” in 1998 which peaked at No 62 in the charts and they disbanded not long after. Almost miraculously, they resurfaced in 2022 with new material though without chief songwriter Martin Carr within their ranks.

And back to the crap. I really am sick of these brainless Eurodance hits. I mean 2 Unlimited pushed me to my limits (ahem) but at least their songs were originals. Applying the Eurodance formula to existing songs was really taking the piss. Presumably the perpetrators of this musical crime did it to extend the shelf life of the genre in case the punters were tiring of it? We had already strayed into this area with the likes of Rage covering Bryan Adams in 1992 and more recently the Hi-NRG treatment of “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” by Nicki French but this next act would take it to another level. Clock would…erm…clock up thirteen UK Top 40 hits in total of which at least half were cover versions starting with this – Harold Faltermeyer’s “Axel F”. The original made No 2 in 1985 and was, of course, from the soundtrack to the film Beverly Hills Cop and was an instrumental track. The 1995 version though had a rapper and female vocalist tacked onto it in the way of that established Eurodance model. Now I was never much of a fan of the original – in fact I found it quite annoying – but this…THIS! Well, it was every shade of shit. Why did anybody need this in their life?! Apparently lots of people did as it went Top 10 in the UK. To be fair, I could also have lived without the original having ever existed either. Its appearance in the chart meant there were two 90s danced up cover versions of 80s instrumental hits in the Top 10 concurrently alongside Perfecto Allstarz and “Reach Up (Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag)”.

As for the performance here, presumably the dancers in police uniforms and the CHiPs style motorcycle that tonight’s host Mark Goodier rather ludicrously sits astride in his intro are to tie in with the Eddie Murphy film but it’s all rather unnecessary and silly. And why was the rapper dressed as a circus ringmaster? If we thought this was bad though, it was literally a musical masterpiece compared to what Crazy Frog inflicted on us ten years later.

It’s another dance tune next (of course it is) but this one’s a definite upgrade on Clock. Bucketheads was a side project by Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez, one half of the classic house music Masters at Work production team. Taking Chicago’s “Streetplayer” as his source material Kenny came up with “The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)”, a fusion of house, disco and funk that had been causing a stir in nightclubs for six months before it got a proper release on the Positiva label. That buzz would translate into sales sending it to No 5 in the UK charts.

You know, I’ve always dismissed Chicago as that band who produced all those sickly ballads like “If You Leave Me Now,” “You’re the Inspiration,” “Hard To Say I’m Sorry” and “Hard Habit To Break” which were, to my ears, all essentially the same song. However, there is so much more to them than I ever realised. They’ve been going for 55 years, have released 26 studio albums, sold 100 million records, have been inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and have a list of band members past and present that would rival The Fall. Then there’s the music. They’ve tried everything from jazz-rock to funk to soul to those adult contemporary hits. There’s even a documentary about them called The Last Band On Stage – apparently they were pretty much the last artist to play a live gig on the planet as Covid shut the world down in March 2020.

Anyway, back to Bucketheads and the video shown here was directed by one Guy Ritchie three years before he became famous for Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels. As for the name Bucketheads, was it anything to do with the satirical political candidate Lord Buckethead who stood in the 1987 and 1992 General Elections? The film maker Todd Durham created the character in 1984 for the sci-fi comedy film Hyperspace and when he claimed ownership of Buckethead following the 2017 General Election, the character was renamed as Count Binface by the comedian Jonathan Harvey who was the current incumbent. I guess the idea just fell into his mind.

Enough with the dance tunes! Give us something else! Well, you couldn’t get more of a contrast from Clock and Bucketheads than the moment Radiohead transformed from shoe-gazing one hit wonders into colossal, stadium-filling art rockers. After the indie disco favourite “Creep” had gone Top 10 in 1983, Radiohead had come under pressure from EMI to repeat the trick. What they did instead was so much more than just another isolated crossover hit. Sophomore album “The Bends” would come to be seen as a game-changer, redefining the parameters of rock music and it wasn’t hard to understand why. Compared to the likes of Oasis (whose lad rock charms I had been easily swayed by), it was a much more layered, complex and involved record. The first time I heard it played on the shop stereo, I knew I was listening to something special, something that demanded more exploration, something…well…just more. It was one of the few albums that I’ve ever bought that I felt I had little choice in. It had to be purchased. As with The Boo Radleys earlier, “The Bends” is an album that has stayed with me ever since and which has not diminished over the years.

There’s another reason for linking Radiohead and The Boo Radleys (I do love a bit of synchronicity) and that’s in the Charles Bukowski T-shirt Thom Yorke is wearing. The American writer and poet had died exactly one year ago to the day that this TOTP was broadcast which presumably was why Thom was wearing the T-shirt. So what’s this got to do with The Boo Radleys? Well, their album “Wake Up” has a track on it called “Charles Bukowski Is Dead”. Sometimes this shit just writes itself.

Anyway, “High And Dry” was the second single from “The Bends” (after “My Iron Lung” in the Autumn of 1994) and was a double A-side with “Planet Telex” (the opening song on the album) and its almost achingly beautiful. Originally recorded as a demo in 1993 and almost incredulously dismissed as being too Rod Stewart (!), it has been described as being responsible for the careers of the likes of Coldplay and Travis. I’ll leave you to decide if that’s a good thing or not.

One more thing, they say a song’s quality can be judged by its ability to be covered in a style that is completely different to its original form. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Radiohead as done by ABC. Who needs AI?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Having an artist do an ‘exclusive’ performance of a single yet to be released only to have them back on the show the following week once it’s entered the charts isn’t working for me. Take Faith No More for example. They were on just last week performing “Digging The Grave” and I struggled to find anything to say about it then. Now I’ve got to go through exactly the same torment again this week? They could have at least shown the video to give me something different to go at.

Look, I’ve got nothing so not for the first time I’m going to leave it to Beavis and Butthead…”They just look and sound like everyone else”.

Genuine music icon time now as the venerable Stevie Wonder is on the show. Now while I can totally appreciate why TOTP Executive Producer Ric Blaxill would have jumped at the chance to get such a legendary name on the show, it really does feel like a case of shoehorning going on here. Yes, Stevie had an album due out (“Conversation Peace”) but it wasn’t actually available in the shops for another two weeks. The lead single from it (“For Your Love”) had peaked and was going down the charts so he couldn’t really perform that. The solution was to get Stevie to sing a track from the album called “Tomorrow Robins Will Sing” (it would eventually be released as the second single).

Now I love Stevie’s 60s, 70s and early 80s stuff as much as the next person but most of his material from “I Just Called To Say I Love You” onwards was of variable quality at best. I have to say that the song performed here really wasn’t up to much. A reggae flavoured number that saw Stevie unwisely indulge in some sort of faux rapping in the verses. And here’s my point. Yes, he is a legendary name and yes it was an exclusive to have him in the studio in person (his last performance appearance was in 1974 promoting “Living For The City”) but was there really that much buzz and anticipation about a new Stevie Wonder album in 1995? I’m not sure. “Conversation Peace” did go Top 10 in the UK but it’s hardly regarded as a classic is it?

In amongst the proliferation of R&B artists that the 90s gave us, I always feel that Des’ree gets overlooked somewhat. I’m not sure why as she has the sales/streams and awards to not be but perhaps it has something to do with the fact that of her six UK Top 40 hits, three of them were courtesy of the same song. “You Gotta Be” was first released in April 1994 peaking at No 20. So why the rerelease nearly a whole year later? It was down to its stellar performance in America where it made No 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. And why was it a hit over there? Well, because it was used to soundtrack an advertising campaign for the ABC network magazine programme Good Morning America thereby raising its profile significantly. The UK rerelease saw the single peak at No 14 but it was its third outing in 1999 when it gained its biggest success with it finally made the Top 10. That final release was again due to its use in an advert, this time to promote the Ford Focus car. “You Gotta Be” also won an Ivor Novello for Best Contemporary Song whilst Des’ree herself won a BRIT Award for Best Female Solo Artist. Outperforming all three of those releases though was her 1998 single “Life” which got to No 8 despite it including a lyric that was voted the worst ever in a pop song in a 2007 BBC poll. You know the one – where Des’ree sings that she doesn’t want to see a ghost and would rather have a piece of toast? Yeah, that one. She also duetted with Terence Trent D’Arby on his 1993 hit single “Delicate”.

So why do I think she’s over looked? Well, she never had a massive selling album, at least not in the UK though her 1994 collection “I Ain’t Movin'” sold a million copies in the US. I also think the two years between that release and her debut “Mind Adventures” and its attendant hit single “Feel So High” in 1992 meant she lost a bit of momentum. In that time, the likes of Gabrielle, Dina Carroll appeared on the scene to step into her vacant shoes. Hell, even EastEnders actress Michelle Gayle got in on the act. Did Des’ree just get crowded out of that particular musical genre? Actually, listening back to “You Gotta Be”, it does have more than a hint of Gabrielle’s “Dreams” to it. Did Des’ree see which way the wind was blowing and decide to follow suit?

One person who didn’t overlook Des’ree was my wife who is a primary school teacher. When she was teaching a music unit one year, she decided that there wasn’t enough R&B / soul music represented on the module and so added “You Gotta Be” to it. Apparently her class loved the song and would sing along to it when she found a video on YouTube with the lyrics included. I’m not sure how many pupils my wife had in her class but I’m guessing it wasn’t as many as Des’ree had in a world record breaking event for charity in 2008 when she led 600,000 children in singing the same song simultaneously at the O2 Arena. The song was, of course, “You Gotta Be”.

Now, was it too soon for the return of Wet Wet Wet after their fifteen week stint at No 1 with “Love Is All Around” the previous year? In fact, how do you follow up a hit that big? Is it even possible to achieve such sales with consecutive releases? Erm, no is the short answer though “Julia Says” was no flop either peaking at No 3. Trailing the band’s fourth studio album “Picture This” (though “Love Is All Around” was tacked onto it as the last track), it seemed a rather safe choice by Marti and the gang to be honest. Despite being melodic and tuneful, it was hardly breaking any new ground. The exact opposite in fact as I’m sure I can detect traces of “Strawberry Fields Forever” era Beatles in there at one point. Still Pellow sells it well to the delight of the screaming studio audience (as Mark Goodier says, the band always got a good reaction whenever they were on TOTP).

Ah yes, those fans. I have a memory of Wet Wet Wet fans being a bit of a pain when “Julia Says” came out, a bit precious about when exactly would it be available in the shop to buy. Not Numanoid levels of annoying – Gary Numan’s fans were always ringing up and arguing the toss about release dates – but still the wrong side of polite I would say. They, at least, far from having had enough of Wet Wet Wet, couldn’t get enough of them.

Celine Dion is not finished with the No 1 spot yet as she clocks up a sixth week there with “Think Twice”. In desperation of having to say something about this song yet again, I decided to have a gander at the lyrics. Written by Andy Hill and ex-King Crimson lyricist Pete Sinfield (who also wrote “The Land Of Make Believe” for Bucks Fizz), the words are really not very good. Like, at all. Rhyming ‘dice’ with ‘twice’? I took a guitar class a few years back and we were tasked with writing a song of our own to perform in front of everyone else. I came up with some crap based around life as a board game which included a lyric about rolling the dice. I was almost embarrassed to sing it. Celine clearly had no such qualms.

“Think Twice” also includes these lines:

Babe, I know it ain’t easy when your soul cries out for higher ground
‘Cause when you’re halfway up, you’re always halfway down
Writer/s: Andrew Gerard Hill, Peter John Sinfield
Publisher: Songtrust Ave, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

What was the inspiration for that? The Grand Old Duke of York nursery rhyme?! Thankfully, we’ve only one more week of this crud to go.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	The Boo Radleys	Wake Up Boo!	No the single but I bought the album
2	Clock	Axel F	NO!
3	Bucketheads	The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)	Nope
4	Radiohead	High And Dry / Planet Telex	See 1 above
5	Faith No More	Digging The Grave	I did not
6	Stevie Wonder	Tomorrow Robins Will Sing	Negative
7	Des’ree	You Gotta Be	Nah
8	Wet Wet Wet	Julia Says	No
9	Celine Dion	Think Twice	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001r3g6/top-of-the-pops-09031995

TOTP 02 MAR 1995

Posted on October 6, 2023 by 80stastic

Five of the nine songs on tonight’s show have already been featured in recent weeks but then the whole of this week’s Top 40 was in chaos so no wonder the running order was a bit off. So what was going on then? Well, for the second time in as many months, there was a bit of a cock up with the compilation of the sales data that informed the charts and every position apart from the Top 8 was affected. Even worse was the fact that the error wasn’t noticed until after the charts were announced and broadcast on the Sunday chart show. A recalibrated Top 40 was rapidly published on the Monday but in a curious move, TOTP head producer Ric Blaxill chose to base the Thursday night show around the incorrect chart. Maybe it was a case of supporting the more public version that the BBC had broadcast as to not have would have undermined the corporation’s authority as the custodians of the chart? Or maybe Blaxill just thought people wouldn’t have noticed the rectified chart and so just wanted to not draw attention to the error?

Whatever the reason, the decision seems a little odd in retrospect but surely the bigger mystery is why Keith Allen was asked to host the show. OK, maybe not why Keith Allen per se but why was he allowed to do it as the character of ‘Keithski Allenski’. The online reaction to his…erm…performance was overwhelmingly negative with most reactions being along the lines of “what the Hell was that?!” and “Why is he shouting all the time?!”. It’s clear he was trying to send up ‘yoof’ presenter and one time beau of Janet Street-Porter Normski but was Normski still a big name by 1995? Wikipedia tells me that the programming strand DEF II which was produced by Street-Porter and which housed Normski’s rhyming/rapping presenting style was off the air permanently by May 1994. Obviously Allen’s creation had some longevity as I know instinctively 28 years later who he is parodying but back in 1995 would it have all seemed a bit old hat? Talking of hats, apparently the one Allen was wearing wasn’t actually his but one he fished out of the BBC prop store that was used by EastEnders character Ethel! Anyway, whilst we’re discussing whether Normski was still a big name at this time, how well known was Keith Allen himself? Well, if you’d been a fan of The Comic Strip Presents…in the late 80s you’d have seen him in the episodes The Bullshitters and The Yob. He’d also been in Danny Boyle’s excellent Shallow Grave but I’m guessing an awful lot of people knew him as that bloke who got round the back in the video for New Order’s “World In Motion” during Italia ‘90. I read his autobiography Grow Up a few years back and it was an entertaining read though I’m not sure if I warmed to him that much by the end of it. I did have sympathy for him though when he revealed that his Dad wouldn’t let him watch the 1966 World Cup final for a childhood misdemeanour on the morning of the game.

He starts the show in high octane mode extorting the audience at home to “rip up the shag pile” – it doesn’t really get any better and you could say the same for first act MN8 who were never higher in the charts than they were right now – “I’ve Got A Little Something For You” is up to No 2 which means a third TOTP studio appearance for the band. As such, I haven’t got much else to say about them. Right, I’ll try one last google search for inspiration…

*sound of keyboard tiles clicking*

Right then. Let’s have a look…

*scans results*

Usual Wikipedia entry…official fan page on Facebook…hang on, what’s this? There’s a device designed to alleviate period pain called MN8?! Apparently, it’s a small device that is attached discreetly to underwear. Sadly there’s nothing discreet about MN8 the band and their personalised underwear which they are all to keen to whip out during this performance.

Next a song that was actually at No 20 rather than No 21 as the TOTP graphic advised but it’s splitting hairs I guess. It would go onto be the band’s second biggest hit ever though when it finally came to a halt at No 12. If you were asked to name 3 in 10 on Ken Bruce’s Popmaster quiz for Mike + The Mechanics could you do it? There’s “The Living Years” their US chart topper, UK No 2 and funeral standard obviously and then there’s…erm…well, actually there are some more. Their debut single “Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)” in 1986 made No 21, “Word Of Mouth” got to No 13 in 1991 and “All I Need Is A Miracle” was a massive radio airplay and Top 5 US hit though it didn’t make the UK charts until it was rereleased in 1996 to promote a Best Of album.

Then there’s this, the lead single from the “Beggar On A Beach Of Gold” album. If you asked AI to create the optimum AOR airplay hit, it might well come up with “Over My Shoulder”. A pleasant melody allied with Paul Carrack’s golden soul voice, how could it fail? Well, the whistling in the middle eight was considered an impediment by some it has to be said. Did it really add anything to the track by going all Roger Whittaker on it?

It certainly didn’t put daytime DJs off playing it. My wife and I went to Prague around this time and we seemed to hear it everywhere. However, my biggest memory of hearing it in the radio was in 1996 when it was played on the coach taking us to the airport in Madrid. We’d had a great holiday there but I got a case of Montezuma’s Revenge on the last day from an ice cream and spent the night on the hotel room bathroom floor. Somehow I had to get myself together to make the flight home the following morning. I hauled myself onto the coach and kept everything crossed or rather clenched. First tune on the radio that morning? “Over My Shoulder”. It wasn’t anything over my shoulder I was was worried about though. Any movement under my seat on the other hand…Miraculously, I managed the entire journey home without incident. Unfortunately though, the whole episode has left me with some rather unpleasant associations with “Over My Shoulder” none of which is the fault of Mike + The Mechanics to be fair.

I recently listened to an interview with Paul Carrack who discussed his time in the band and why he left. He told the story of how he’d put together an album in 2000 showcasing his career to that point but was still required to pay the licensing fee to include “The Living Years” on the track listing despite being the vocalist on the song. At that point, he realised he needed to be in control of his own catalogue of music and his time in the band came to an end. Asked by the interviewer if he’d heard any material by the rejuvenated Mike + The Mechanics (they reformed in 2010 with a new line up), Carrack quickly replied “Not really”. Oof!

Keithski is back banging on about tearing up carpets again before introducing “Push The Feeling On” by Nightcrawlers. Like many a 90s dance tune, it had an elongated gestation period before a massive hit was finally birthed. Originally released in 1992, it only made No 86 but its B-side was a remix of the track by DJ and producer Marc Kinchen which picked up a lot of play in the clubs and eventually was given an official release as a single in 1994 which made No 22 in the UK charts. Encouraged by that success, Kinchen returned to the track to tweak it a little more and it was released for a third time under the title “New MK Mixes for ‘95” which would become the definitive version of the track.

Now I couldn’t have picked this one out of the myriad dance tunes that dominated the 90s without re listening to it but now that I have, let’s address the elephant in room. This is the same tune as that intensely annoying We Buy Any Car jingle! Well, sort of. It’s actually based on the 2021 track “Friday” by Riton X Nightcrawlers featuring Mufasa and Hypeman which itself was obviously based on “Push The Feeling On”. Those fiendish marketing guys even got YouTube sensation Musafa to be in the ad campaign.

Anyway, back in 1995, none of us could have predicted there would be this thing called YouTube (except perhaps David Bowie) but we did have the video which was basically a procession of people posing in a Photo Booth. The director obviously went for fast clips with bold colours (check out those hairstyles) but the image that dominates for me is that of main Nightcrawler John Reid with his incredibly long, lank hair and weary expression. Maybe he hadn’t managed to sell his vehicle to We Buy Any Car.

Another dance tune next but we shouldn’t really be surprised. By my reckoning, every other hit in the Top 20 this week is a dance tune. Honestly, they were everywhere. Look at this lot:

N-Trance
Perfecto Allstarz
MC Sar and The Real McCoy
Bucketheads
Clock
Nicki French
Ini Kamoze

That’s not even including MN8 and Nightcrawlers that we’ve already seen tonight and now here’s Alex Party! Their hit “Don’t Give Me Your Life” is up to No 3. It would eventually peak one place higher. I don’t really have anything else to say about this one so instead I’m going to talk about Keith Allen’s intro for it and specifically his use of the phrase “Acieed!”. This was obviously a reference to the infamous “We Call It Acieed” single by D Mob from 1988 which got banned by the BBC amidst a tabloid backlash against the acid house movement and rave culture. Whilst it’s certainly true that the track did lead to the phenomenon of the younger generation going around randomly shouting the phrase aloud, would the kids of 1995 have known about? Clearly, he was sending up the whole ‘wicked DJ” persona for laughs but would the kids have got his cultural reference and joined in with the joke?

Future No 1 incoming and it’s this year’s Comic Relief song. After the dance track “Absolutely Fabulous” by Pet Shop Boys the previous year and the awful novelty record of “Stick It Out” by Right Said Fred in 1993, the charity went for a big ballad this time round. “Love Can Build A Bridge” was a country & western song by mother and daughter duo The Judds which had already been used for a charity record as recently as six months prior when Children for Rwanda covered it in aid of Save The Children. However, despite a TOTP appearance, it failed to make the Top 40. Comic Relief clearly saw legs in the song though and drafted in not one but four artists to record it. The combination of Cher, Chrissie Hynde, Neneh Cherry and not forgetting Eric Clapton would add the necessary star power to propel it to the chart summit.

However, it only ranks at No 15 in the best selling Comic Relief songs of all time. The next time a single was released in aid of the charity, they played the percentages much better and instead of taking a punt on a track relatively unknown to the UK public, they co-opted the appeal of a band rather than a song. The Spice Girls were at the height of their fame in 1997 and the decision for their latest single release (“Mama /Who Do You Think You Are”) to be used as the official Comic Relief song was always going to guarantee sales. It stands as the fourth best selling Comic Relief single of all time.

Curiously, both Cher and *Chrissie Hynde’s last singles released prior to “Love Can Build A Bridge” were the same song. Cher had a minor hit with “I Got You Babe” in 1993 alongside cartoon characters Beavis and Butt-head whilst Chrissie bagged a No 1 with UB40 on the same track in 1985. Both were terrible in my humble opinion.

*Credited as Chrissie Hynde and not as part of The Pretenders obviously

Keith Allen’s had a change of outfit for the next intro and put on the football shirt of his beloved Fulham FC. Now why’s he done that? Do you think it could be to wind up famous Watford supporting Elton John who is the next act on? I wouldn’t put it past him. Elton’s in the studio to perform his latest single “Believe” and as it’s one of his trademark plodding ballads, they’ve positioned the audience in a circle creating an in the round effect. Clearly the studio director has instructed them to sway as per tradition for such a song. It’s all as unconvincing as the single earring Elton’s sporting.

When Elton finished his Glastonbury set this year, he had his getaway planned so meticulously that he was back for his kids bedtime in minutes. Or as my Elton hating mate Robin put it, you could still hear the crowd booing as he tucked them in.

Back to that Top 40 foul up now and the curious case of Scarlet. Their hit “Independent Love Song” had peaked at No 12 a fortnight ago and then slipped down to No 14 the following week. In the incorrect chart announced seven days later on Radio 1 it was listed as a non mover and so TOTP Executive Producer Ric Blaxill took the decision to book them for the show again. However, when the rectified chart was published, Scarlet had fallen to No 16. In keeping with the show’s protocol of not featuring acts that were going down the charts, Blaxill really should have cancelled Scarlet’s booking but instead he honoured it making them part of a very elite club to have appeared on TOTP while their record descended the Top 40. Well I never.

P.S. As with his “Acieed!” reference, I’m not entirely convinced that ‘ver yoof’ would have got Keith Allen’s Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons name check in his intro.

The exclusive performance this week comes from Faith No More whose single “Digging The Grave” was released the week following this broadcast. I was never really that into these guys. I quite liked “We Care A Lot” and “Epic” is an…well…epic song but after that? Not so much for me thanks. What? Their cover of “Easy”? What about it? I could never figure out the point of it nor who was buying it. This track, however, was a return to their grunge rock tendencies and must have completely passed me by as I don’t recall it at all. Thankfully. What I do like though is the band standing behind Keith Allen as he does his intro for the No 1 record with a look on their faces that says “What the f**k is this guy going on about?!”.

Said No 1 is Celine Dion again with “Think Twice” which is exactly what I’m having to do to come up with something to say about this one again. Right think…that’s once…and that’s twice. I’ve got nothing. I could have done with that Top 40 cock up working in my favour and moving Celine down the chart.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	MN8	I’ve Got A Little Something For You	No
2	Mike + The Mechanics	Over My Shoulder	Negative
3	Nightcrawlers	Push The Feeling On	Uh uh
4	Alex Party	Don’t Give Me Your Life	Nope
5	Cher, Chrissie Hynde, Neneh Cherry and Eric Clapton	Love Can Build A Bridge	Not even for charity
6	Elton John	Believe	Nah
7	Scarlet	Independent Love Song	Really should have but no
8	Faith No More	Digging The Grave	I did not
9	Celine Dion	Think Twice	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001qwr3/top-of-the-pops-02031995

TOTP 23 FEB 1995

Posted on October 5, 2023 by 80stastic

We’re four weeks into a make over that saw TOTP adopt a new logo, set, title sequence and theme tune but we should probably remind ourselves that this was nothing compared to the changes going on at Radio 1 under controller Matthew Bannister at this time. Determined to rid the station of its Smashie and Nicey image, Bannister had overseen the exits of such names as Gary Davies, Dave Lee Travis, Simon Bates, ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris and Paul Gambaccini in the 18 months since his appointment and had also made the decision that the station would not playlist any ‘old music’ (typically anything recorded before 1990).

However, there was still a dinosaur clinging on to its very existence that had somehow avoided succumbing to Bannister’s hatchet. Hiding away in the early hours slot was 80s throwback Bruno Brookes. I used to listen to this guy back in the mid-80s when he did the drivetime show and quite liked him but then I was a callow, know-nothing youth. As I matured though, he became irritating to me – the older I got, the more annoying I perceived him to be. And yet, when he was one of the Radio 1 DJs brought back into the TOTP fold by Ric Blaxill in 1994, his presence was almost reassuring and he actually seemed like a safe pair of hands. This wasn’t the view shared by Matthew Bannister and his Head of Production Trevor Dann though. In the 2001 documentary Blood on the Carpet: Walking with Disc Jockeys, Dann recalls how he asked the question “…why is Bruno on?” if there was meant to be a cull on all the dinosaur DJs. Apparently, he did have a loyal audience of truckers tuning in to his early morning show but it wasn’t enough to save him. The day after this TOTP was broadcast, Brookes was sacked by Dann. Brutal stuff.

There were also no Radio 1 DJs on this edition of the BBC’s prime time music show as it was another ‘golden mic’ week, this time filled by D:Ream’s Peter Cunnah. I’d have to say, he’s not a natural presenter. I think his nerves got the better of him to the extent that he overly relies on the prop of his microphone and almost obscures his mouth. The first act he introduces are Perfecto Allstarz with “Reach Up (Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag)”. I spewed out a rant about how egregious I found this track recently when compared to the glorious 1982 original and I haven’t changed my mind in the meantime. For this performance they’ve ditched the guys in the skeleton outfits and replaced them with dancers who are dressed like they’ve just hot-footed it from Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” world tour. Were combat trousers a thing in 1995? Oh, I can’t remember. The vocalist tries to join in with some of the dance moves but can’t keep up and so styles it out with some vague arm waving and a toss of her hair. Not entirely convincing, a bit like the track itself. Not many agreed with this assessment of mine though. The single spent five weeks inside the Top 10 even going back up the charts after dropping the previous week. It eventually peaked at No 6.

Excellent! Another PJ & Duncan hit! Just what we needed! Obviously not but clearly the record buying public of the time couldn’t get enough of them. “Our Radio Rocks” was the duo’s fifth consecutive Top 40 hit and sixth single released from their album “Psyche”. After trying to exploit the Christmas market with a slushy, romantic ballad (“Eternal Love”) last time out, they’re back to the familiar rap/pop formula as typified by “Let’s Get Ready To Rhumble”. An homage to the the power and appeal of radio (sort of), the ‘lyrics’ are primary school level of word play. It begins badly with a chant of “Here we go” and never really recovers. I once started an essay at school with the sentence ‘Thud, thud, thud, thud, his footsteps echoed around the empty street’. My English teacher was appalled but even he would surely agree that my composition was intellectually superior to PJ & Duncan’s effort. The rap starts with an obvious paraphrase from a classic pop hit:

“Video never killed the radio star“
Written by: DENI LEW, MICHAEL OLTON MCCOLLIN, NICKY GRAHAM
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

before moving onto the ‘killer’ rhyming couplet:

“DJ are the shepherd and we are your flock, you holler we follow our favourite jock“
Written by: DENI LEW, MICHAEL OLTON MCCOLLIN, NICKY GRAHAM
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Oh. I may consider my schoolboy writing a cut above Peej and Deej’s lyrics but when it came to sartorial choices, I’m sad to report I was no better than them. I too once wore a gilet like Dec/Duncan in a moment of fashion madness. My friend Robin, who was staying with us at the time, thought it was marvellous and ripped the piss out of me mercilessly. I bet Ant/PJ would never have done that to his mate!

For Bon Jovi’s last single “Always”, TOTP producer Ric Blaxill had the band perform the song against the stunning backdrop of Niagara Falls. It worked so well that the show repeated the clip a couple of times. The band were at it again for the follow up single “Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night” with them playing in the New York Giants Stadium. Known alternatively as The Swamp, it was also home at the time to the New York Jets but Peter Cunnah doesn’t mention that in his intro. Maybe the Jets weren’t as big a name as the Giants? I’ve no idea. Obviously it doesn’t work as well as a backdrop as Niagara Falls in the wow factor stakes. The stadium lighting doesn’t help as they seem to dazzle too much to me and undermine the shot. Still, credit should be given for trying something different at least.

Like “Always”, the single was another new track taken from their Best Of album “Crossroads” and has proved to be a pretty durable Bon Jovi tune. It’s a crowd favourite live and its flexible structure has enabled the band to perform it in lots of different styles. The style on display in this TOTP here though was that of censorship. The line “all the good shit’s gone” is sung by Jon Bon Jovi as just “All the good is gone”. He could have at least replaced ‘shit’ with the word ‘stuff’ surely?

The problem with these in studio exclusive performances that would showcase a single that hadn’t even been released yet is that they’d crash into the charts the following week thereby requiring another TOTP appearance. Back in the day, only the No 1 record could have guaranteed appearing on consecutive shows. Come 1995, it seemed to be happening all the time. I know it wouldn’t have troubled Ric Blaxill but it’s playing havoc with my blog writing 28 years later. It’s hard to come up with new content on a subject I might have only just posted about a few days earlier. Plus these are events that happened in the past that are immovable; I’m not commenting on Rishi Sunak changing his mind on HS2!

Anyway, all of the above is leading me to Elastica and their single “Waking Up”. Fortunately, the band have provided me with an alternative angle for a write up. Conveniently, they’ve roped in Justine Frischmann’s then boyfriend Damon Albarn of Blur to appear on stage with them. Damon was in the TOTP studio anyway with his own band who followed Elastica in the running order so it probably wasn’t that hard to arrange. The interesting point here though is who’s idea was it? Was it a cross label agreement to help promote both bands? How about a devilish plan by Blaxill to spice up the show? Or perhaps just an impromptu decision between a boyfriend and girlfriend because it would be a laugh? Certainly Albarn seems to be playing his role for comedic effect with his goofy stare from behind his heavy rimmed glasses. There’s no denying that the celebrity couple generated publicity for Elastica but wouldn’t Justine have not wanted to ride on the coat tails of her boyfriend? Perhaps the biggest question of all was what was the deal with the motionless male model looking guys wearing just a towel that were positioned around the stage? They looked like they needed waking up. Ahem.

The inevitable segue into Blur happens immediately. Now bearing in mind that the band’s last single release was “End Of A Century” the previous November and that they wouldn’t release their next for another six months when they squared up to Oasis in The Battle of Britpop, it seems likely to me that this appearance to perform a track from their “Parklife” album (“Jubilee”) was a record label engineered exercise. Billed as an ‘album performance’ by the TOTP caption, it was supposedly to celebrate the band winning four awards at the recent BRIT awards. Well, maybe. It’s true that the show introduced an album chart section during the ‘year zero’ revamp but this wasn’t highlighting a new entry into said chart or the No 1 album. Having checked the officialcharts.com archive, “Parklife” was at No 12 and going down and guess what? After this TOTP appearance, it went up the charts the following week to No 2! Hmm. Is it just me or does all that sound ever so slightly cynical? Or maybe Ric Blaxill could see which way this was all going and decided to be an early adopter of the Britpop movement and embrace and celebrate it?

As for the track, it’s a banger but not the best on the album which is probably “This Is A Low” in my opinion. I’m guessing that the downbeat, melancholy of the song wasn’t seen as suitable for the high octane nature of TOTP not to mention that it was almost double the length of “Jubilee” which might have played havoc with the show’s timings.

Special mention should go to drummer Dave Rowntree for his piss take of Prince’s ‘slave’ stunt where the purple one had the word written on the side of his face to protest at his struggles with record company Warner Bros. Well played Mr Rowntree!

Back in the 80s, I could probably have listed all of Madonna’s singles, possibly in release order but by the mid 90s I’d completely lost my way with her. This despite having worked in record shops since October 1990. Her 90s output just didn’t appeal to me that much. Between 1984 and 1989, Madge was the queen of the pop single, churning out doozy after doozy but for me, something changed after we entered the new decade. It was as if she decided that she was done with all that pop stuff and wanted to develop a more mature sound and be seen as an artist rather than a pop star. Now of course, that was totally within her remit to do so. The Beatles sound changed dramatically from the lovable moptops to the material released from say “Revolver” onwards. George Michael totally reinvented himself after leaving his Wham! pop origins behind. Why shouldn’t Madonna be allowed to take her creativity in a different direction? Absolutely. I’m just saying I didn’t like her 90s hits as much as her 80s ones. That’s not to say she didn’t release anything good during the decade. “Vogue”, “Ray Of Light”, “Justify My Love” are standouts from those years but some of her stuff just didn’t cut through with me.

“Bedtime Story” is a case in point. The title track from her album and co-written by Björk (not a selling point for me), it just seems what we would have called ‘pseudy’ back in the day. A tale of the delights of the unconscious world, it’s far too arty for my pop sensibilities with its ethereal trance beats and pulsing bass. Oh and then there’s the lyrics. Whereas PJ & Duncan’s were lowest common denominator crap, “Bedtime Stories” are painfully highbrow. Check these lines which are spotlighted in the video:

“Words are useless, especially sentences. They don’t stand for anything“
Writer/s: Björk Gudmundsdottir, Marius De vries, Nellee Hooper
Publisher: Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Hmm. One in the eye there for linguists everywhere. Talking of the video, my God! Pretentious? Moi? It was the most expensive video ever made at the time (though it was outdone by Janet and Michael Jackson’s “Scream” just one year later). Channelling the imagery of surrealist painters like Frida Kahlo and Remedios Varo, it includes scenes such as Madonna giving birth to doves, in a pool with skulls and finally the unnerving sight of her with her mouth where her eyes should be and vice versa. That final image brought to mind the dark fantasy horror of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth taking the video into the realms of high art. Maybe that’s what Madonna wanted all along. “Bedtime Story” peaked at No 4 thereby banishing for the moment the memories of Madonna’s last single (“Take A Bow”) being the first to not make the UK Top 10 since “Lucky Star” in 1984.

Right, I’m just going to put this out there now. I like Del Amitri. Always have. Not in a superfan type of way but I like what they do in the same way that I like Deacon Blue. Both bands, it seems to me, have something in common and it’s not that they’re both Scottish. No, it’s that they both suffer from being perceived as unfashionable, not edgy enough and, in some people’s minds, even dull. This seems grossly unfair to me. Both have forged longstanding careers (albeit with not insubstantial sabbaticals at times), both have written some pretty darn good songs and both have musicality to spare. So what’s the issue here then? Their images? Sure, they’re not that much to look at (except Deacon Blue’s Lorraine McIntosh who I’ve always had a thing for plus I have female friends who regard Ricky Ross similarly) but surely Del Amitri lead singer Justin Currie’s lambchop sideburns weren’t a deal breaker were they? So what is it that people object to so much? Their lyrics? What’s wrong with writing from the heart about things that you know about? Whatever the reason for the looks of scorn when you admit to liking them, I’ll not be apologising for liking good songs.

Take “Here And Now” for example. The lead single from their fourth album “Twisted”, it’s a great tune. Melodic, excellent laid back Summery feel, lyrics that stick in your head, nice guitar fade out. There’s even some falsetto vocals in there just to mix things up a bit. It’s a nice song. Ah, I’ve answered my own question haven’t I? Nice. That dreaded word that no musician wants to be described as. Oh, I don’t care. I still like it and it’s fairly simple chords mean I can just about strum it on the guitar which is always a bonus.

“Here And Now”only got to No 21 but then Del Amitri have never been about huge selling singles have they? Fifteen Top 40 hits but not one of them got higher than No 11 with most peaking somewhere in the 20s. Albums are a different story though. Of their seven studio albums, only two peaked lower than No 6. The band are back together again now with their last album being as recent as 2021 and they have a tour booked for 2024 as support for Simple Minds. Oh and you can stop that sniggering at the back about the credibility of Simple Minds while you’re at it!

I quite often use this phrase but who the hell were this lot?! Seriously, anybody remember The Glam Metal Detectives? Well, too be fair to us all, they weren’t a proper band but a fictional group in a BBC TV series of the same name. I can honestly say that I never watched any of its episodes but then there were only seven ever made as it only lasted for one series. Wikipedia tells me it was some sort of comedy which combined sketch and sitcom elements. Ah, the BBC trying to be all innovative and subversive eh? No wonder it was shown on BBC2 then. It did have some decent names in the cast including Phil Cornwell and Doon Mackichan both of whom appear in this performance. Their song – “Everybody Up” – was the show’s theme tune and was dreadful despite being written and produced by Lol Creme and Trevor Horn yet somehow managed to spend a whole week inside the Top 40 at No 29.

I think what we have here is a case of TOTP being used not as a reflection of the country’s musical tastes but as a promotional tool for a new show (the first episode was broadcast just an hour after this TOTP aired). There was certainly some manipulation going on this week what with this and the Blur appearance.

Celine Dion is at the top of the pile again this week with “Think Twice”. Despite it being No 1 in half a dozen countries around the world, in the US it only managed to get to No 95. Obviously, with the power of blockbuster film Titanic behind it, they were powerless like the rest of the world to resist “My Heart Will Go On” three years later.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Perfecto Allstarz	Reach Up (Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag)	Nope
2	PJ & Duncan	Our Radio Rocks	As if
3	Bon Jovi	Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night	Negative
4	Elastica	Waking Up	No
5	Blur	Jubilee	Wasn’t released as a single but I had the Parklife album . Didn’t we all?
6	Madonna	Bedtime Story	Nope
7	Del Amitri	Here And Now	No but I have it on a Best Of CD
8	The Glam Metal Detectives	Everybody Up	Buy it? I can’t even remember it!
9	Celine Dion	Think Twice	Definite no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001qwqy/top-of-the-pops-23021995

TOTP 16 FEB 1995

Posted on September 28, 2023 by 80stastic

The BBC4 TOTP repeats schedule is missing the 9th February show as it included the video for convicted sex offender R Kelly’s “Bump N’ Grind” over which the chart countdown played. It isn’t the only thing missing as on 17th February 1995 the Vauxhall Cavalier belonging to Richie Edwards of Manic Street Preachers was reported as abandoned near the Severn Bridge. Edwards had been missing since leaving the London Embassy Hotel on 1st February. Attending police found evidence that the car had been lived in but although it had been left near a notorious suicide spot, there has never been any conclusive evidence that Richie committed suicide. Despite numerous sightings of him over the years, his whereabouts and status have never been confirmed until 2008 when he was officially ‘presumed dead’ although he is still listed as a missing person.

So much has been written about the story of Edwards disappearance that it has almost become legend. As such, it’s hard to recall initial reactions to the news but it remains a huge event not just for Manics fans but also in rock history. What I do recall is that there was much discussion about what the remaining members of the band would do next. Ultimately they decided to carry on and returned in 1996 with possibly their most well known album “Everything Must Go”.

Continuing the ‘missing’ theme, looking at the running order for this particular TOTP, it strikes me that there’s something else absent and that’s the presence of Britpop. Isn’t 1995 meant to be the year it exploded? So where are all its representatives? Now you might be thinking to yourself, “What’s this guy on about? What about Elastica?!” Yes, that’s true. Before the show has even started, you’ve got Justine Frischmann and co announcing their presence on the show tonight in the message to camera slot. However, check out some of the rest of the artists on the running order:

Elton John
Annie Lennox
Celine Dion
Gloria Estefan

Hell, there’s even a classical violinist on the show albeit she was a rather unusual flavour of that particular genre.

Not mentioned in that list are tonight’s opening act who are Alex Party. This Italo House collective had a minor hit the year before with “Alex Party (Saturday Night Party)” but it’s this one – “Don’t Give Me Your Life” that is surely the one they are known for if, indeed, they are remembered at all. Now I’ve had my say on all these generic dance tunes clogging up the charts around this time and nearly all of it has been negative. What can I say? I’m a pop kid at heart not a dance head. However, it did seem to me that within this one there was almost the semblance of a proper song structure. I’m sure I can detect verses and a bridge into a chorus. This wasn’t the norm was it or hadn’t I been listening to all the other dance hits properly? True, said chorus incorporates a deadly annoying bleeping synth riff that seemed to be a feature of the genre but tiny credit where it’s due I suppose. “Don’t Give Me Your Life” would peak at No 2 in the UK selling 400,000 copies along the way.

The first of four songs that we’ve only just seen next – that’s the fall out from missing an episode I suppose. I went into quite some detail about Scarlet and their biggest hit “Independent Love Song” in the last post so what to say about them this time?

Well, maybe that it seems to me that they’re not talked up enough as being a commercially successful group from Hull; after all my adopted city isn’t full of them. Yes, of course, there’s The Housemartins and The Beautiful South and Mick Ronson but after that? Everything But The Girl met at Hull University and took their name from a Hull shop but neither Tracey nor Ben were actually from Hull. Kingmaker had a smattering of Top 40 hits between 1992 and 1995 but I would suggest they are ignored in a similar fashion to Scarlet. Who else? The Paddingtons were tipped for superstardom at the start of the new millennium but never really lived up to those expectations. Any more? Wait, what?! Throbbing Gristle? The industrial music pioneers led by Genesis P-Orridge were from Hull?! I never knew that! Mind you, if you’ve ever heard any of their stuff, I’m not surprised the good people of Hull don’t big them up.

So, back to Scarlet. Sure, they only had two UK Top 40 chart hits but, on the other hand, they had TWO UK CHART HITS! How many of us can lay claim to that?! Oh and why does host Mark Goodier say he feels overdressed in reaction to Cheryl Parker’s flamboyant, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen-esque studio outfit. Surely he means underdressed or is he being ironic? Probably lose the irony and stick to the straight down the line script that you’ve built a career on eh Mark, there’s a good chap.

Hi, is that the fumigators? Good. I’ve got an urgent job that needs doing. There an horrendous stench in the TOTP studio due to the presence of a massive stinker at No 19 in the charts! I don’t mean to be disrespectful but Gloria Estefan’s version of “Everlasting Love” is malodorous in the extreme. The third track released as a single from her “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” album, this is one of the worst covers I think I may ever have heard. OK, not the very worst. Nothing can can hold a candle to Paul Shane butchering “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” but it’s still absolutely awful.

I think it’s just the utter laziness with which Gloria approaches the song. That homogenous Eurodance sound has just been applied lavishly to this classic pop song made most famous by The Love Affair who took it to No 1 in 1968. Those Italo House piano flourishes just seem so incongruous and make the thing sound so clunky.

The performance here does nothing to aid the song either. It’s another underwhelming live by satellite exclusive, this time from Miami (obviously) but I’m not convinced that the whole thing isn’t just filmed against a green screen with a fake background added in. Also, Gloria’s backing band look like the uncoolest collection of musicians ever assembled. In short, the whole thing was a bad idea with a botched execution. Must do better.

And so to the aforementioned classical violinist. There are examples of classical music crossing the divide into the pop charts but as Mark Goodier alludes to in his intro, it didn’t happen often. Off the top of my head, there’s “Nessun Dorma” by Luciano Pavarotti but that was off the back of the BBC’s Italia 90 coverage. Then there’s Ravel’s “Balero” but again that was due to another sporting event – Torvill and Dean’s gold medal winning skate at the 1984 Winter Olympics. Of course, there have been pop hits inspired by classical music. How about “World In Union” by Kiri Te Kanawa which was based on a movement from Holst’s The Planets (again though that hit came about as part of the promotion of the 1991 Rugby Union World Cup). There’s always “Fanfare For The Common Man” by Emerson Lake & Palmer I guess which was an adaptation of composer Aaron Copland’s work of the same name. OK, there’s been a few but it must be a tiny percentage that have occupied the charts compared to pop/rock acts over a 70 year period.

Seeking to change all that was a then 16 year old Singaporean-born classical violinist called Vanessa-Mae. Hailed by some as the female Nigel Kennedy, she made her first professional appearance aged just 10 and by 1995 she was already onto her fourth album. However, it was that album -“Violin Player” which would send her into the Stradivarius stratosphere with sales of 1.2 million worldwide. The album was produced by Mike Batt of Wombles and “Bright Eyes” fame and the lead single from it was “Toccata And Fugue”, a take on J.S.Bach’s “Toccata And Fugue In D Minor”.

Now, and I deliberately omitted this one from my list above, we had already seen a version of this piece in the UK Top 40 back in 1980 when Sky took “Toccata” to No 5. This though was the golden era of classical/pop music crossovers – I think this was also when that horrible Hooked On Classics phenomenon was about.

In 1995 with Eurodance and Britpop dominating, the prospect of a classical artist breakthrough seemed unlikely. I guess that Vanessa-Mae wasn’t your average classical artist. Was there some negativity from the classical music world to how she was promoted at the time? I see to think there was. Certainly her performance here was challenging the accepted and expected norms of the genre. Backing dancers lifting her up in the air and then appearing to do ‘The Locomotion’ dance? The insertion of a sample that says “Fasten Your Seat Belts” halfway through? And what about Vanessa-Mae’s outfit? Leopard print top and micro skirt? Remembering she was just 16 at the time was there any outcry about that back then or was it not seen as a big deal as the era of ‘lad culture’ approached? The single made No 16 which was a position not to be sniffed at given its musical style. The rest is history. By 2006, she was listed as the wealthiest entertainer aged under 30 in the UK.

Maybe spare a thought for Ed Alleyne-Johnson though. The one time New Model Army member and violinist recorded “Purple Electric Violin Concerto” three years before “Violin Player” and fused a classical instrument with a more pop/rock vibe to great effect and critical success but nowhere near the commercial sales of Vanessa-Mae. Then again he didn’t look like her either.

Phew! I didn’t anticipate having so much to say about Vanessa-Mae. Consequently, the next act might be given the briefest of write ups especially as, like Scarlet before them, they’ve already been on before. I refer to MN8 who are up to No 5 with “I’ve Got A Little Something For You”. There was some debate online recently in the wake of their appearances on TOTP as to what that little something actually was. I say debate but it’s pretty clear they were singing about their penises isn’t it? Oh and there’s this titbit about member Dee Tails. He became an actor and has played four different Star Wars characters. What’s that? Make a joke about light sabres. I wouldn’t stoop so low!

It’s right wing nutter masquerading as Home Secretary Stella Braverman’s current nemesis now. In the Tory government’s quest to turn the nation against each other by vilifying nurses, doctors, teachers, rail staff etc, I didn’t see Elton John as an obvious target for them. As if the world wasn’t mad enough. Anyway, back in 1995, Elton was on a hot streak. Unlike the second half of the 80s when he couldn’t buy a hit, the 90s had already provided him with eleven Top 40 singles including two No 1s. Even that though wasn’t enough to satiate Elton and less than a year after his “The Lion King Soundtrack” album came out, he released his next one called “Made In England”. The lead single from it was “Believe” which received critical acclaim but to me sounds like a rewrite of his 1992 plodding ballad hit “The One”*. Seriously, Elton could have knocked this one out whilst polishing his multiple music awards. In fact, “Believe” was nominated for a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance but didn’t win.

*Interestingly, the B-side of the single is the aforementioned “The One”. Hmm.

The black and white promo with Elton travelling in a zeppelin was probably bigged up at the time as a feat of video production but it hasn’t aged that well. “Believe” peaked at No 15 but to be honest, I couldn’t recall what it sounded like before listening to it and I’ve already forgotten how it goes now. Still, anyone who gets up the nose of Suella Braverman is OK by me.

Another song now that I wrote loads about in the last post and also an example of how your brain shifts and re-edits events over time. I described Annie Lennox’s hair during her performance of “No More ‘I Love You’s’” as being a bit Minnie Mouse-esque. There was clearly something lingering in my mind that triggered that comment and here it is. Actual Mini Mouse headgear! I must have forgotten Annie wore some for real! She’s lost the drag queen ballerinas for this one and replaced them with some guys who look like they’ve raided Scarlet’s wardrobe with their ruffled shirts.

Something else I talked about in the last post was what I felt was an odd decision from Annie to make her second solo album a collection of cover versions. I’ve since discovered that the reason for her decision is that she felt emotionally spent after pouring everything into debut album “Diva” and a covers album was a way of releasing an album without the same emotional investment and also allowing her to spend more time with her children. That work/life balance worked for Annie as she went one better than Elton John by winning the Grammy she was nominated for when “No More ‘I Love You’s’” won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

And so to this week’s ‘exclusive’. After looking completely ill at ease during the message to camera piece at the top of the show, Elastica look much more comfortable on stage performing their single “Waking Up”. This was their third consecutive Top 20 hit but rather unbelievably given the band’s profile, it was also their last. True, they did release their first album a month on from this that went to No 1 and broke records for a debut album in the UK so chart-wise, that was their biggest achievement but it’s still surprising. Or is it given that the band didn’t release another single in the UK until 2000* by which point Britpop had long since burnt out?

*I’m not including the 6 track EP released in 1999 that was a collection of demos and rarities.

So why was there such a big gap between releases? Well, after their album came out, they embarked on a huge round of touring (they went round North America four times). The punishing schedule led to bass player Annie Holland leaving the band citing exhaustion. This put into action a flurry of line up changes which, allied with Justine Frischmann’s heroin addiction, proved to not be conducive to the recording of new material. Record label issues and a poor reaction to second album “The Menace” led to the band calling it a day in 2001.

With that all said, I guess it’s time to confront the elephant in the room, the dreaded ‘P’ word – plagiarism. All three of Elastica’s hit singles faced accusations of copying other artists’ work. “Line Up” and “Connection” sounded a bit too similar to songs by post-punk rockers Wire whilst “Waking Up” bears an undeniable resemblance to “No More Heroes” by The Stranglers. This led to litigation action from several music publishers which were settled out of court. Does that tarnish the Elastica legacy or their place in musical history (however big or small that might be)? Personally, I don’t think so but maybe I’m being hypocritical as Ed Sheeran can get to f**k with his song stealing ways as far as I’m concerned.

It’s a second week at the top for Celine Dion with “Think Twice”. Somehow, despite this being its fourteenth week on the Top 40, “Think Twice” had managed to position itself in pole position just as Valentine’s Day rolled around. This may just have been a factor in not just seeing off competition from Annie Lennox who was strongly tipped to replace it but also in helping Celine to capture the album top spot in the shape of “The Colour Of My Love”. February 1995 – what a time we were all having!

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Alex Party	Don’t Give Me Your Life	No
2	Scarlet	Independent Love Song	Surely I bought this? No?
3	Gloria Estefan	Everlasting Love	Everlasting shite more like. No
4	Vanessa-Mae	Toccata And Fugue	Nope
5	MN8	I’ve Got A Little Something For You	Negative
6	Elton John	Believe	I did not
7	Annie Lennox	No More ‘I Love You’s’	No but I have the original by The Lover Speaks from 1986
8	Elastica	Waking Up	I didn’t as it goes
9	Celine Dion	Think Twice	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00fsvgs/top-of-the-pops-16021995

TOTP 02 FEB 1995

Posted on September 26, 2023 by 80stastic

OK, we’re moving into a new era of TOTP with this particular edition. It’s taken a whole year but executive producer Ric Blaxill has finally turned his attention to the show’s logo, theme tune, titles and set. The much ridiculed ‘weather vane’ title graphics are gone and replaced by just seven seconds of some golden hued torsos indulging in vaguely musical activities involving a microphone and headphones and finally holding up a plaque with the new logo on it. It’s all very underwhelming. The logo itself was soft launched on the retro archive spin off show Top of the Pops 2 five months previously and is a much more basic design than its immediate predecessor with the ‘of’ and ‘the’ rather oddly highlighted within a blue box. As for the theme tune – “Red Hot Pop” composed by Erasure’s Vince Clarke – it’s main riff reminds me of something I can quite put my finger on…give me a moment…got it! The intro to “Rasputin” by Boney M! No really! It does! Blaxill hasn’t chucked everything out though. He’s retained the increasingly pointless artist to camera piece at the very top of the show (this week it’s Luther Vandross telling us Stingray like ‘not to go anywhere for the next half hour’) as well as the ‘golden mic’ presenter feature. As it’s a special week, he’s got a big name in to do the honours – it’s Kylie Minogue in a scorching hot, red latex dress! Blimey!

We hardly have time to take that image in before we’re into the first act though who are M People with “Open Your Heart”. This would turn out to be the band’s seventh in a run of eight consecutive Top 10 hits and was the second single release from their “Bizarre Fruit” album. Given those numbers, clearly the record buying public hadn’t had enough of the M People formula just yet though they were arguably teetering at the top of the hill named success and about to start coming down the other side.

“Open Your Heart” ticked all the usual boxes – perky backing, uplifting chorus, powerhouse Heather Small vocals, parping sax courtesy of Mike Pickering and yet I don’t remember this one at all which suggests to me that I, at least, was tiring of M People. Their next single release was “Search For The Hero” which would deviate from the template rather and remains one of their most well known tunes. Could it be that even the band themselves had got a little bored with their sound?

Ah, now then. It’s time for that weird period of 90s pop when there were a flurry of hits that were all based around a riff that went ‘nah, ne, ne, nah, ne, ne, ne, nah, ne’. This example comes from MN8 whose debut single “I’ve Got A Little Something For You” went all the way to No 2 and was the first of seven UK chart hits.

Off the top of my head there’s “This Is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan which was a hit in the early Summer of 1995…

Then a year later the abysmal Peter Andre recycled the riff to score a No 1 no less (no really) with “Flava”…

There’s possibly more examples but anyway, back to MN8 who…erm…emanated from Surrey and comprised of KG, G-Man, Kule T and Dee Tails (I’ve no idea what there real names were but I bet they are along the lines of Kevin, Keith, Gordon and Dean). Coming on like Ultimate Kaos’ hormone filled, elder brothers (the six pack exposing strip in this performance was a bit gratuitous lads), this lot briefly threatened to be a big deal. Tour support slots with Boyzone, East 17 and even Janet Jackson only strengthened the notion. However, after their deal with Sony expired, the band concentrated on live shows and then took time out to decide what they wanted to do next. We weren’t talking a few weeks here though – the lads’ sabbatical is now at 25 years and counting. Apparently they did reconvene in 2013 to record an album that remains unreleased.

This inactivity hasn’t affected the band’s ego though. Also in 2013, G-Man declared in an interview on BBC1 Xtra of MN8’s legacy, “How are you going to write a story about the best acts of the past fifteen years and not mention us”. G-Man’s confidence clearly wasn’t matched by his ability to count – at the time of the interview, MN8 hadn’t released any new material for sixteen years. Ah.

Here’s another ‘Na-na-na-nah’ song and it’s a third outing on the show for the video for “Here Comes The Hotstepper” by Ini Kamoze next. Although there is an obvious emphasis on the word ‘Hotstepper’ given its appearance in the song’s title and chorus (it’s patois slang for someone on the run from the police), there’s also the reappearance later in the lyrics of a phrase that I only knew from Kris Kross and their 1992 hit “Jump”. I refer to ‘Mack Daddy’ (or is it ‘Daddy Mack’?). So what did this one mean? Well, apparently it’s another patois term and means ‘a conspicuously successful pimp’! Did Kris Kross’s parents know what they were rapping about?!

In the ocean of mainly sub standard dance tunes that was the UK Top 40 at this time, here’s a life buoy of a tune that I have a particular connection to. Scarlet were Cheryl Parker and Jo Youle who met at Wolfreton school in Hull. Now Hull, of course, is where I have been living for the past twenty years but that’s not the connection I was talking about (obvious though it is). No, it’s that my wife (who is also from Hull)…no, she doesn’t know Cheryl or Jo (that really would be obvious)…no, it’s that my wife had heard of them well before “Independent Love Song” was a hit.

I’m not sure where but she’d heard one of their early singles released on indie label Haven Records “Shine On Me Now” and liked it so much she asked me to try and find out about it/them what with me working in a record shop and all. Clearly my research skills weren’t up to the job as we don’t own that single. However, I did try honest. Look, here’s the note that I made of it in my Filofax (yes, I had one!).

Anyway, three years later, Scarlet were signed to WEA and their second major label single release (the first was “I Really Like The Idea” recorded with third member Joanne Fox who left before success hit) propelled them into the charts. And what a song! It swoops and soars, ebbs and flows and has an epic chorus. It stood out like a firework against the dark night sky to me. It really should have got higher up the charts than No 12. In fact, Scarlet should have had a much bigger career but they only had one more chart hit after “Independent Love Song” – the follow up single “I Wanna Be Free (To Be With Him)” which made it to No 21. They released two albums “Naked” and “Chemistry” – the former made No 59 whilst the latter disappeared without trace. Jo Youle is now chief executive of Missing Persons, a charity that gives support to those searching for lost loved ones whilst Cheryl Parker started SongwritersWorldwide, a website for new acts to find songs.

By the way, I finally found “Shine On Me Now” (if only YouTube had been around back then). A version of it appeared on “Naked” retitled as just “Shine”.

It’s time for Luther Vandross now who, as previously mentioned, did the message to camera piece at the top of the show earlier. He’s here to perform the latest single from his covers project “Songs” which had been a No 1 album and had already given him a Top 3 single courtesy of his duet with Mariah Carey on “Endless Love”. The track chosen as the follow up was “Always And Forever”. Nothing to do with the debut album of last week’s hosts Eternal* but a hit for Heatwave in 1977.

*The Eternal fall out story broke just after I’d published hence why I didn’t comment on it in the post

It’s a bit of a dirge to be fair and Luther’s straight down the middle version doesn’t do anything to alter my opinion. It was written by Rod Temperton who hailed from Cleethorpes (just down the East coast from Hull) who also wrote “Thriller”, “Off The Wall” and “Rock With You” for Michael Jackson! However, for me his masterpiece remains Heatwave’s “Boogie Nights” which has one of the best intros ever…

I’ve been critical in the past of the live by satellite exclusive performances that TOTP promoted going all the way back to the 1991 ‘year zero’ reboot I believe. My main issue with them was that there wasn’t anything very…well…‘exclusive’ about them with the majority being filmed in empty theatres and concert venues (presumably in the middle of the night due to time differences) that could have been from anywhere and were certainly no better than a turn in the TOTP studio. I get that it was a way for the artist to appear on the show if they couldn’t be there in person due to touring or promotional commitments but surely these satellite slots weren’t even as good as an expensively produced video were they?

Well, I can’t accuse this particular satellite performance of being anaemic but I’m not sure it’s entertaining either. It’s just…well, bonkers. Beaming in from Japan, are REM performing “Crushed By Eyeliner” on a stage along with a crowd of extras some of whom are dancing on a podium. Having watched the official promo video, perhaps they are trying to recreate it on stage. Perhaps. But the three stooges in bear costumes?! What the f**k was that about? It all just smacks a bit of “look at us being so zany and subverting the mainstream”; so much so that rather than promote the single, it distracts from it. Still, Blaxill didn’t miss the chance to promote the TOTP brand by emblazoning the new logo on the arse of one of the bears!

“Crushed By Eyeliner” was the third single from the band’s “Monster” album and it was probably the last one of theirs that I took any real notice of. I kind of lost sight of REM after this. Their final two albums of the 90s – “New Adventures In Hi-Fi” and “Up” – passed me by completely. This track is still a winner though and its No 23 peak probably doesn’t do it justice.

“How many of you remember the original?” asks Kylie and the end of this next track. Me Kylie! Me! And it was better than this bastardised version! Back in 1982, Pigbag went all the way to No 3 with “Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag”, an instrumental with a genuinely once heard never forgotten brass riff. The success and legacy of the track (its distinctive refrain was even adopted as a football terrace chant especially by QPR fans) meant though that Pigbag became one of those artists where the song became bigger than the band. In fairness, they did their best to make sure that fate didn’t become them when they pushed their post punk anarchist agenda by being escorted out of the TOTP studio after one of the band performed steaming drunk on a live show and swore at a BBC producer after the cameras stopped rolling. Pigbag split in 1983 but their hit refused to go away.

Fast forward to 1995 and here it is again remodelled by Perfecto Allstarz as “Reach Up (Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag)”. Whereas Pigbag struggled to be known as a band and not a song, Perfecto Allstarz weren’t a band at all but rather a vehicle for Paul Oakenfold and his Perfecto brand. The trance DJ and record producer would dominate the 90s dance world and work with everyone from Moby to The Rolling Stones via his Perfecto remix team and record label. His remix of U2’s “Even Better Than The Real Thing” was the first time I heard the name Perfecto and a fine remix it was too. “Reach Up” though was awful. The original was a classic that I would argue couldn’t be improved upon and certainly not by adding a strangulated house style vocal imploring us to ‘Reach Up’ to it. And what was with the skeleton costumes? Maybe Blaxill had watched Live And Let Die that week and run with the idea…

I feel as if I should make more of a big deal of Celine Dion finally making it to No 1 with “Think Twice” after twelve weeks on the Top 40 including three consecutive at No 2 but seeing as it’s going to be the UK’s chart topper for the six more after this, I can’t really be bothered.

OK, this is new (sort of). Instead of playing out with the No 1 record we’ve got a preview of a new song that wasn’t even released until the Monday following this broadcast. Annie Lennox (or Annie Lenn-ox as Kylie curiously pronounces her surname) had been away from the charts for two years since the runaway success of her debut solo album “Diva” and with no sign of Eurythmics getting back together she moved onto a follow up. Nothing out of the ordinary there except that as her sophomore effort, she chose to record a set of cover versions. Wasn’t that the sort of thing an artist would do to fulfil a contractual obligation with a record company? Whatever reason was behind the decision, Annie chose to cover songs from the likes of Paul Simon, Bob Marley, Neil Young and, in an act of musical heresy, The Clash. Entitled “Medusa”, it received mixed reviews in the music press though just about everyone agreed that the lead single was actually rather good. Given the stellar names of the other artists whose work Annie covered, the choice of taking on obscure 80s act The Lover Speaks was straight out of left field. Or was it? The Lover Speaks were the duo David Freeman and Joseph Hughes who sent a demo tape to Dave Stewart of Eurythmics who signed them to his publishing house. He sent their demo to Chryssie Hynde who sent it to producer Jimmy Iovine who got them signed to A&M. You don’t even need all six steps of separation to draw a line back to Annie.

Now then, back in the Summer of 1986, big things were being predicted for The Lover Speaks. They were being touted as The Walker Brothers of the 80s and their debut single “No More ‘I Love You’s’” was attracting lots of airplay. I think I first heard it on the Gary Davies show on Radio 1 as he seemed to play it everyday and what a glorious thing it was. My friend Robin described it as “a poppy Cocteau Twins” and I think he’s spot on. A shimmering diamond of a song that was full of melody and drama that pulled at your heartstrings every time you heard it (well, mine at least). I was so impressed I bought their album but in truth, a bit like Annie’s “Medusa”, nothing else on it matched its quality. As with many a single that I adored in the 80s though, “No More ‘I Love You’s’” didn’t even make the Top 40 peaking at No 58.

Given all of this, despite Annie’s version not being anything near as good as the original, I was pleased when it became a huge hit peaking at No 2. A song that good deserved to be heard by a wider audience. I’d had similar thoughts back in 1987 when Alison Moyet released a very poor version of “Weak In The Presence Of Beauty”, a wonderful song which was originally released by Floy Joy also in 1986 and which also failed to become the huge hit it deserved to be when it peaked at a lowly No 85. And guess what? It turns out that The Lover Speaks collaborated with Alison on her album “Raindancing” from which “Weak In The Presence Of Beauty” came. Kevin Bacon’s got nothing on The Lover Speaks!

Now, as I recall, there was quite a bit of reaction to Annie’s performance on this TOTP but then I guess that’s what she wanted. I mean, you don’t take to the stage with four drag queen ballerinas by accident do you? Annie herself though is rather out there as well. The extravagant headwear that made her look like Minnie Mouse and the weird performing as if under duress when being buffeted by the ballerinas towards the end? All very strange but at least it made for a memorable appearance.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	M People	Open Your Heart	No
2	MN8	I’ve Got A Little Something For You	As if
3	Ini Kamoze	Here Comes The Hotstepper	No but I think my wife did
4	Scarlet	Independent Love Song	Call the fuzz! Where’s my copy of this gone?!
5	Luther Vandross	Always And Forever	Nope
6	REM	Crushed By Eyeliner	Nah
7	Perfecto Allstarz	Reach Up (Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag)	NO!
8	Celine Dion	Think Twice	I did not
9	Annie Lennox	No More ‘I Love You’s’	No but I had The Lover Speaks album with the original on

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001qp2q/top-of-the-pops-02021995

TOTP 26 JAN 1995

Posted on September 19, 2023 by 80stastic

You know in the last post I said that thinking about time too much can seriously mess with your head? I should have taken my own advice. How can it be that one of the most controversial and talked about moments in the history of football is now nearly twenty-nine years old?! The Eric Cantona Kung Fu kick incident was a monumental, seismic event. It was all anyone was talking about back then. The images in the clip below are now scorched into our collective memories but at the time, before I’d seen the footage, I recall thinking it can’t be that bad and then I saw it and it was so much worse. Of course, we now know that the Crystal Palace ‘fan’ he assaulted – one Matthew Simmons – turned out to be a right scrote (he assaulted the prosecutor immediately after he himself was found guilty of offensive behaviour) and somehow Cantona’s popularity, if anything, increased following the incident. His “When the seagulls follow the trawler…” statement at a press conference called later became almost as famous as the Kung Fu kick itself.

Anyway, it all happened the day before this TOTP aired though I doubt it’s referred to in the show as they tended to be recorded on a Wednesday so it probably hadn’t even occurred as the cameras were rolling. I also think guest the presenters were probably far too nice to mention it. Yes, it was time for another golden mic slot and this time it fell to all girl group Eternal to fill the role. By this point in their career, they had a four times platinum album and six hit singles under their belts so they were a fairly big deal. They also had still had Louise Nurding in their ranks but she would leave the group to pursue a solo career well before the year was up. And yes, she was Louise Nurding and not Redknapp in 1995 – she didn’t marry footballer Jamie until three years later. Although he was a part of that group of Liverpool players dubbed ‘The Spice Boys’ in the press, the biggest crime Redknapp ever committed was wearing that cream Armani suit for the 1996 FA Cup final. Mind you, some might say that was a bigger offence than Cantona’s Kung Fu kick.

The first act that Eternal have to introduce tonight are MC Sar & The Real McCoy and “Run Away”. Yes, it may be 1995 – the year of Britpop – but the honking nonsense (in my own humble opinion) that was Eurodance was still lingering about our charts like the shadow of Liz ‘lettuce’ Truss over UK politics. However, there seemed to be a fair bit of love around for this track online after the BBC4 repeat went out and it appears in many a Best Dance Tune of the 90s poll. It was well liked at the time as well, even going to No 3 in the US (and No 6 over here). I mean, it’s not that it isn’t catchy it’s just that I’m surprised about the extended life expectancy of a formula of a male rapper / female vocalist over a generic dance beat. I mean, 2 Unlimited had been playing that particular hand for years by this point. Never mind The Real McCoy, I would have preferred Star Trek’s Dr McCoy turning to Captain Kirk and advising him on the health of Eurodance “It’s dead Jim”.

Right who the deuce is this? Oh, it is…erm…Deuce in fact. Yes, coming on like a prototype Steps were this boy/girl combo peddling a Abba-infused, high octane Eurodance number. “Call It Love” would be the first of four UK Top 40 hits for the group who briefly looked like they could be a force in the world of pop – ‘New UK Talent’ was how the TOTP caption introduced them. Hmm. Despite that run of hits, their career also took in the rather embarrassing episodes of failing to better Love City Groove in the battle to be the UK’s Eurovision entry and singing on a Coronation Street anniversary album with actress Sherrie Hewson. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the band was dealt a further blow when lead vocalist Kelly O’Keefe left and they were dropped by London Records. They resurfaced on Mike Stock’s Love This label for one final hit but by 1997, and following more line up changes, time was called on the project and Deuce were no more.

Possibly the biggest legacy that Deuce left us with was that one of their number – Lisa Armstrong – would end up marrying (and divorcing) Ant McPartlin of Ant & Dec fame. Now, I know a story about them because an old friend from college ended up sharing a flat in London with someone who worked for Smash Hits and Lisa Armstrong herself. Sadly, my wife says I’m not allowed to tell it though but I will say it involves dirty bed sheets!

Next, we have another look at Simple Minds playing their latest single “She’s A River” at the top of the Eiffel Tower. This was an exclusive performance a couple of shows previously but so spectacular was its setting that it’s been given a repeat airing. Either that or the band themselves weren’t available for an in studio appearance. I’m guessing it’s the former though – in a similar move the Bon Jovi performance at Niagara Falls was repeated at least once.

“She’s A River” was the lead single from their “Good News From The Next World” album and would be the band’s final Top 10 hit when it peaked at No 9.

Of course, Simple Minds weren’t the first band to arse about on the Eiffel Tower to promote themselves. “The name’s Bon…Simon Le Bon”.

It’s yet another dance act in the TOTP studio – the third one of this particular show but this was easily the biggest of the three sales wise. “Set You Free” by N–Trance would go all the way to No 2, sell over a million copies and be the 17th best selling single in the UK in 1995.

However, for me personally, I’d rather see the video for this one. Why? Well, because (and I didn’t know this at the time and even if I had it wouldn’t have meant anything to me) but part of the video was shot in front of Cliffords Tower in York. So what you may ask and it would be a reasonable question. Well, five years after “Set You Free” was a hit, I left Our Price after working for the company since 1990 and took a job in the civil service in York. My wife and I lived right in the centre of the city and would often walk past Cliffords Tower, the ruined keep of a medieval Norman castle. Up until now, I had no idea about the scenes in the video that were shot in front of it but now I’m intrigued. Talk amongst yourselves a moment while I check it out on YouTube…

Yep, definitely Clifford’s Tower. OK, it’s maybe not quite as well known as its French counterpart Eiffel but still impressive. Meanwhile, back in the TOTP studio, N-Trance have brought their dancer mate with them again. Whilst the temptation to make the comparison with Bez is strong, I’m drawn to this guy from 90s sit com Spaced. Ladies and gentleman, I give you… Tyres….

Boy bands dominated the 90s with the likes of Take That, Boyzone and Westlife probably in the Premier League of that musical genre whilst Five, 911 and East 17 were probably more Championship level. Once you start dropping even further down the leagues you encounter OTT, Upside Down and Worlds Apart. So where would we find Let Loose? I’m saying mid table mediocrity in League 1. Yes, they had seven hit singles including three Top 10s but they’re only really remembered for “Crazy” aren’t they? Take this hit – “One Night Stand” – for example. Catchy? Yep. Memorable? Hardly.

However, it seems not everyone thinks this way. A recent article in the Metro newspaper about a Let Loose relaunch was positively rapturous about the news despite it being one of the worst ideas ever conceived. Too harsh? Well, consider this. They’re not reforming with lead singer Richie Wermerling but a bloke from the bottom of League 2 in terms of boy bands – Bad Boys Inc! Really?! There’s a demand for this?! Well, according to that Metro piece this Bad Boy Stinker – one Matthew Pateman – is, in their words, a “music icon”! I mean, please! The plan is for a new record and London gig by the end of the year and then a whole tour in 2024. I’m sorry but I can’t imagine their being thousands of people poised at their keyboards for when those tickets go on sale. It’s hardly a Taylor Swift tour is it? Still, they’ve achieved more in terms of a music career than I ever could dream of so I should maybe shut up*

* My version of “Where The Wild Roses Grow” by Nick Cave and Kylie in guitar class back in 2010 was a triumph though.

Right, this, for me, is easily the best song on the show tonight and yet it pretty much passed me by at the time. I knew there was this band called Green Day and that they had an album called “Dookie”. I even knew what the album cover looked like what with working in a record shop and all and that there was a track called “Basket Case” on it as it had one of those “includes the single…” stickers on it. However, what I didn’t know was what it/they sounded like. Yes, that does seem unlikely given the whole record shop thing but then that perception that we spent all our days leaning on the counter, drinking coffee and listening to the latest tunes was never, ever true. Sometimes the days were so busy that I couldn’t have told you the names of any CDs that had been played on the shop’s stereo.

Anyway, the bottom line was that Green Day weren’t massively on my radar. It seems though that they had come to the attention of Kéllé and Vernie from Eternal judging by their rather gushing intro (most of it directed at lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong). I used to work with someone in York who was similarly enamoured by BJ though I could never see it. At some point in the intervening 28 years though, I did come to know and love “Basket Case”. Supposedly it’s a seminal track in the pop-punk movement, inspiring a generation of subsequent bands; it may well be but all I know is that it’s a great track full of energy and a driving rhythm. On that, I would never have made the connection but said rhythm and chord progression is based on Pachelbel’s Cannon. I think there’s a more obvious example in “All Together Now” by The Farm but if you need convincing, here’s a mash up video:

What I did notice is that the BBC censors failed to pick up on the word ‘whore’ in the lyrics. Or maybe it was that new TOTP executive producer Ric Blaxill was aware of it but didn’t make a fuss as it fitted in with his ethos of trying to make the show more edgy. However, I’m not sure this ‘exclusive’ performance from San Francisco fits that bill. We’re back to a (probably) empty concert hall for this one – the Eiffel Tower it is not.

By the way, as well as “Where The Wild Roses Grow”, my guitar prowess also extends to finger picking Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”. Eric Clapton? Pah!

Next another band who, similar to Green Day, I was aware of but had little idea what they sounded like. The Wildhearts were a rock band who, unsurprisingly given the title of the song they perform here, hailed from Newcastle. Having listened to “Geordie In Wonderland”, my impression is that they wouldn’t be out of place mixing in the same social circles as the likes of The Quireboys, Little Angels and Dogs D’Amour. Indeed, The Wildhearts formed when lead singer Ginger was sacked from The Quireboys and at one point they had the drummer from Dogs D’Amour in their ranks. However, there’s also something of The Pogues about this particular track as well – it’s got that drunken sing-a-long quality to it. Unlike Green Day’s use of the word ‘whore’ in their lyrics slipping past the censors, Ginger has to fudge singing the word ‘shit’ from the line “some of the shit has sprouted in roses” presumably at the behest of some BBC suits.

I have to say I don’t mind the song – it’s sort of like a lairy version of “Run For Home” by fellow Geordies Lindisfarne. Unsurprisingly, given the band member in full football kit and the Toon Army banner on display, the song was offered to then Newcastle United manager Kevin Keegan as a potential club anthem but Kev wasn’t ‘head over heels in love’ with the idea and politely declined.

As for The Wildhearts, they reached a commercial peak four months on from this performance when their album “P.H.U.Q” made No 6 in the charts. Years of drug problems and record company wrangling though meant that they were never able to maintain that high. The band have been on and off for years but released their last album as recently as 2021.

In a show that’s already had it’s fair share of distinctly average at best dance acts, the TOTP producers have left the worst till last and indeed second last. I got some grief off a reader the last time I discussed Nicki French who objected to my description of her cover of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” as one of the worst records of the 90s. Apparently, said reader knew Nicki personally and therefore took criticism of her personally as well. OK look, I’m sure Nicki is a lovely person and the five million global sales of TEOTH (it was a No 2 in the US) are certainly not to be sniffed at plus the fact that she has maintained a career in music all these years should be respected but…I just think it’s an awful cover and a dreadful record. I refer anyone who disagrees to my disclaimer at the bottom of the post.

And so to the No 1 and it’s the final week at the top for “Cotton Eye Joe” by Rednex. Dear oh dear. Quite how did this happen? Well, it wasn’t just the UK that couldn’t resist this techno/hoedown hybrid – it went to No 1 in eleven different countries globally. I guess the success of Rednex was the logical peak of a very niche musical sub genre that flared up briefly in the mid 90s. Back in ‘94 we had “Swamp Thing” by The Grid with its banjo-picking house beats and the square dance disco of “Everybody Gonfi-Gon” by Two Cowboys which were both big hits. Maybe the only way to burst this particularly pustular chart pimple was to let it go full term and wait for it to pop by itself. A No 1 record was surely the apex of the arc and there would be nowhere else for it to go? Well, nearly. There was a mini revival in 1997 when Steps took “5,6,7,8” boot scootin’ up the charts but even they ditched that idea after one single to pursue a career of pop cheese.

Rednex themselves didn’t give up the ghost though. A follow up hit called “Old Pop In An Oak” followed but couldn’t match its predecessor’s sales. An album called “Sex And Violins” (heh) did nothing at all. It was as if we all understood that this was a one-trick pony. The b(r)and name is still going though and in 2018 they started a live stream channel on Twitch. What a time to be alive!

Dgjm

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	MC Sar & The Real McCoy	Run Away	No
2	Deuce	Call It Love	Alternatively, call it crap – no
3	Simple Minds	She’s A River	I did not
4	N-Trance	Set You Free	Nope
5	Let Loose	One Night Stand	Nah
6	Green Day	Basket Case	Not at the time but I must have it on something
7	The Wildhearts	Geordie In Wonderland	Why Aye Man! Actually, no
8	Nicki French	Total Eclipse Of The Heart	Hell no!
9	Rednex	Cotton Eye Joe	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001qgbm/top-of-the-pops-26011995

TOTP 19 JAN 1995

Posted on September 14, 2023 by 80stastic

Well hello there! It’s been a while hasn’t it? The Summer was one of inactivity at the towers of TOTP Rewind due to the enforced break caused by BBC4’s decision to pause their broadcast schedule for TOTP repeats. Having rampaged through 1994 at breakneck speed, the channel came to an abrupt stop just two shows into 1995 and commenced on a two month sabbatical from the chart hits of that year. Some immovable events took precedent like Glastonbury weekend and then there was The Proms but what seemed odd was that the programme schedulers found space to re-show TOTP episodes from the archives we’d already seen previously. Why didn’t they just allocate those slots to the 1995 shows? They’d clearly put some thought into it as the shows chosen for another airing were those that were broadcast on or near to the current date in 2023 – sort of like an ‘On this day in TOTP history’ mini series. I didn’t really get it but I was quite glad of the break from writing if I’m honest. All I had to do each week was tweet a link to my blog archive for my corresponding review of said shows. Brilliant!

Now, given the time elapsed since the last post, a quick catch up might be in order to remind myself about what I was up to in January 1995. Well, work wise I was still with Our Price and had spent Xmas ‘94 in the Market Street, Manchester store where I’d begun my retail career four years earlier. However, times they were a-changin’ and that shop had been sold on to a travel agents. Obviously the company had waited until after the busy Xmas sales period to pull the plug but once that had been and gone the countdown until the end was on. We had the ‘everything must go’ sale but I was focused on what would happen to the staff. As I recall, every full time member was offered alternative employment in another store (probably the Piccadilly shop) but my own future had yet to be decided. A return to Piccadilly wasn’t the most attractive option for me as I’d hated my five months there and to be fair to the company management, they didn’t send me back. All portents seemed to advise that another stint at the Stockport branch was on the cards for me and so it proved when I returned there to spend the next three and a half years in the Cheshire shop.

Before all of that though was the task of closing down the store. Once the shop had shut its doors for the last time, most people moved onto their new locations leaving just a skeleton staff to deal with the remaining stock etc. Come the very end, there were just two of us left – myself and the manager. It was a weird feeling turning up to work in those final few days with the shop basically a hollowed out carcass. My main memory of this period though involved the store’s fire alarm system. I can’t remember exactly why but there was a need for it to be turned off while some work by the shopfitters was carried out. The manager and I believed this had been done successfully but as soon as the work began, the alarm sprang into life. The realisation then hit us that the alarm was linked to the fire station and that a team of firefighters would have been immediately deployed to attend the scene. This wasn’t a pre-planned fire drill exercise after all. As the store was part of the Manchester Arndale shopping centre, we legged it down to the loading bay area below us so that we could be there to head off the firemen and reassure them that the shop was not ablaze. They duly arrived to find me and the manager looking very sheepish and apologetic. They were NOT amused and rightly so though we firmly believed the whole incident wasn’t our fault per se. Once again though, I apologise to the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service.

Back to the music though and it’s time for the nose to become reacquainted with the grindstone so let’s crack on with 1995. Here’s hoping there were some hot tunes burning up the charts! Before the titles roll though we’re reminded that the show still has that direct to camera piece from an artist appearing that week advertising their forthcoming presence. This week it’s ‘The Walrus of Love’ himself Barry White who is back on the show for the first time in eight years. I can’t think of Barry White without thinking of this which I know is very disrespectful to his legacy but I can’t help how my brain works…

However, we start with those little scamps Ultimate Kaos who are back with their second hit single “Hoochie Booty”. Yes, despite having an average band age of 14 as detailed in the TOTP caption, Simon Cowell’s protégés were considered old enough to be singing a song about a sexually promiscuous woman’s bottom. At least I think that’s what the title refers to. I’m not completely clear on the lyrics but at one point they seem to be singing “she’s hangin’ out wit Judy Judy with the big ol booty” and then banging on about taking her home. Blimey! I didn’t know my arse from my elbow sexually speaking when I was 14 and certainly nothing about women’s bottoms! Maybe Ultimate Kaos were trail blazers though, paving the way for All Saints to have a No 1 in 1998 with “Bootie Call” and Destiny’s Child to score big with the track “Bootylicious” in 2001, a phrase that is now so immeshed in popular culture and language that it is listed in all the English language dictionaries and didn’t show up on spellcheck when I typed it earlier in this sentence.

As for the song itself, the newly adopted swing beat direction was clearly an attempt to extend the appeal of Ultimate Kaos to a wider (more mature) audience but it just comes across as inappropriate to me. I think the youth of today might describe it as “giving me the ick”.

Come 1995, the UK trip hop scene appeared to have a new poster group to spearhead it in the form of Bristol’s Portishead who’s debut album “Dummy” would climb to No 2 in our charts. However, anybody writing off OG act Massive Attack were hugely wide of the mark*.

*As a numerical demonstration of this, Massive Attack are at No 14 in this particular chart whilst Portishead are below them at No 15.

Although it had taken the band three and a half years to release a follow up to their iconic debut album “Blue Lines”, sophomore effort “Protection” was worth the wait. Sure, lead single “Sly” hadn’t set the charts alight but when the title track was released it couldn’t be ignored. As with their classic tune “Unfinished Sympathy”, “Protection” benefitted from the talents of a guest vocalist. In 1995, for Shara Nelson read Tracey Thorn from Everything But The Girl. In many ways, Tracey wasn’t an obvious choice. Despite realising a string of great material over the previous decade, their only charting singles since 1984’s “Each And Everyone” had been cover versions – “I Don’t Want To Talk About it” (No 3 in 1988) and their “Covers EP” (No 13 in 1992). However, despite the record buying public collectively cockn’ a deaf ‘un, Tracey’s voice remained and indeed remains to this day both beautiful and immediately recognisable. The song itself is effortlessly and elegantly melancholy yet has a stunning, haunting melody. Tracey herself contributed to the lyrics using her experience of caring for partner Ben Watt through his rare autoimmune condition Churg–Strauss syndrome as inspiration. I read Ben’s account of his recovery from the condition in his auto biography Patient many years ago and it’s a wonderful book. It was out of print for a while but is now available again via Bloomsbury. Worth seeking out. I wasn’t expecting to see Tracey with a guitar strapped to her for this performance and it seems to accentuate her tiny frame but then it does help with the song’s themes and she even sings at one point “Sometimes you look so small, you need some shelter”. Indeed.

“Protection” the single would make No 13 whilst the album peaked at No 4 and would go double platinum. Possibly off the back of this collaboration, Everything But The Girl would be reborn as electronic dance maestros after the Todd Terry remix of “Missing” sold over a million copies in the UK alone. The original version had peaked at No 69 when released six months prior to this TOTP performance.

The problem with having this massive gap time wise between 1995 episodes is that when you return to them, it creates the false impression that the songs featured must have been hanging around the charts for ages when in reality they haven’t. Take “Here Comes The Hotstepper” by Ini Kamoze for example. Even though it was only in its third week on the UK Top 40, it feels like it must be into double figures by now. Something about the progression of time in the present bleeding into the past maybe? Time really can bend your head if you think about it too hard. Having said all that, “Here Comes The Hotstepper” did plant its soles in the charts for weeks including nine within the Top 10 and four consecutively at No 4.

Famously, the track’s lyrics refer to a “lyrical gangster” but what exactly was/is a lyrical gangster? Well, the Songfacts website suggests that although the Jamaican term ‘Hotstepper’ signifies someone on the run from the law, in the case of Ini’s protagonist, he’s guilty of metaphorical murder as opposed to the literal stories of murder contained within the material released by gangsta rapper artists at the time. So that’s metaphorical not literal – got that? Good. Presumably the distinction between the spelling of gangster and gangsta was important too. Well, we’re back to dictionaries again as the Oxford English Dictionary does distinguish between them with the former referring to membership of organised crime groups and the latter as belonging to an urban territorial gang. Not sure that distinction supports the Songfacts metaphor argument to be honest. I think that’s enough of the semantics for now to be honest. One thing I am in no doubt about though is that the film that the song featured in – Prêt–à–Porter– was absolute garbage.

Somebody who definitely has been hanging around for ages is tonight’s host Bruno Brookes who was one of the Radio 1 DJs brought back into the fold at the beginning of 1994 by new TOTP executive producer Ric Blaxill when the ‘year zero’ revamp of 1991 was consigned to the dustbin. Don’t fret though, his charmed run on the show will be over soon. Before then though, he advises us about the new TOTP magazine that was due to appear on the shelves of your local newsagents imminently. Initially earmarked for the spot left vacant by the demise of No 1 magazine (of which I was a reader in the mid 80s and which BBC Magazines took over in 1990), its biggest claim to fame was surely coming up with the nicknames for a then fledgling Spice Girls in 1996.

Anyway, back to the music and here come a band that were inextricably connected to the Britpop movement whether they liked it or not. It could be argued that Sleeper only had themselves to blame having opened for Blur on their Parklife tour but the origins of the band lay way before that when guitarist Jon Stewart met Louise Wener at Manchester University in 1987. Following the familiar route of playing in various bands they finally morphed into Sleeper and were signed to Indolent Records (a subsidiary of RCA) in 1993. A handful of singles were released to critical acclaim but underwhelming sales before they broke through with “Inbetweener”. You can understand why as it’s a real ear worm with some great hooks. Watching Louise up there on stage for this performance she looks so confident and, well, powerful. Inevitably, as with Blondie in the late 70s / early 80s, Elastica rather more recently just twelve months prior and No Doubt three years later, the focus on the band centred around the female lead vocalist, certainly in terms of the media anyway. Louise had that girl next door look but with a glint in her eye and it worked for many a young male fan – I may have even been a bit taken myself. Erm…anyway, Wener was suddenly everywhere; NME front covers (and placing high in the publication’s rather laddish ‘Sexiest Woman’ poll, TV appearances on TFI Friday and The Word and even a turn in the ‘golden mic’ presenter slot on TOTP. All this attention was taken in good humour by the guys in the band who, unlike the aforementioned Blondie, didn’t seem too put out even when the music press coined the term ‘sleeperbloke’ to describe the anonymous other group members who faded into the background when faced with the harsh lights surrounding their more photogenic (and therefore deemed sometimes incorrectly more important lead singer).

As Britpop raged, Sleeper’s profile rose in parallel. 1996 brought a platinum album in the shape of “The It Girl” and four hit singles. They were an undoubted success. I caught them live around this time at the Manchester Academy. They were pretty good too as I remember. However, just as Britpop faded away, so too did Sleeper (thus adding to the perception of the band’s connection to the movement). 1997’s difficult third album “Pleased To Meet You” failed to hit the commercial highs of its predecessor and the band would split in 1998. Wener carved herself a successful career as a writer having four novels and an autobiography published and the band reconvened in 2017 playing live gigs and releasing new material for the first time in two decades.

By the way, if you Google the term ‘inbetweener’, once you’ve got past all the results for the antics of Will, Simon, Neil and Jay, you might see the Urban Dictionary definition of the term which refers to a sub group of people who are not cool enough to be popular but are not nerdy enough to be geeks. That’s a perfect description of my schooldays right there.

R Kelly’s misdemeanours mean that he’s been edited out of this show so it’s straight on to The Human League and their surprise comeback hit “Tell Me When”. The last time they were in the show I remarked on their curious decision to perform in a line rather than in the classic band formation and damn me if they haven’t done it again here! However, this time I’m more drawn to the idea that James frontman Tim Booth has seemingly invented a Time Machine and travelled back from present day to 1995 to be The Human League’s bass player. Complete dead ringer.

“Tell Me When” came from the band’s seventh album “Octopus” which gave them their highest chart position since “Hysteria” in 1984. Despite being around in one form or another for forty-five years, there have only ever been nine Human League albums or rather nine studio albums. There have however been thirteen greatest hits collections. Given the legacy left by 1981’s “Dare”, that hardly seems right but Phil, Joanne and Susan are much more of a live act these days regularly playing gigs and festivals. I caught them myself a few years ago at an open air venue in Hull. They were fine but the audience were not – too many people old enough to know better off their heads and being loud and lairy. In short, I didn’t like the sound of the crowd. I’ll get me coat.

And so to Barry White and I have to admit that, unlike Bruno Brookes who admits to owning all his records in his intro, I never really got his appeal but then I don’t think I was his optimum target audience. Was it just the unfathomably deep voice? Anyway, I don’t recall “Practice What You Preach” at all but it seems to be in keeping with his usual come-to-bed-and-make-sweet-music style. In fact, he actually seems to be in rather a hurry, exhorting his sexual partner to quit with the claims of how pleasure inducing the experience will be and to just get on with it. Heavens! I was rather surprised to discover that the single got as far as No 20 in the UK but then it was a No 1 record on the US R&B chart.

Now according to Bruno Brookes in his next intro, TOTP was a very important show to all the big stars, so much so that the next artist cut short her honeymoon to appear on it. Said star was Celine Dion who is on the verge of bagging herself a No 1 with her hit single “Think Twice” which is currently just one place off the chart summit. Was this true? Well, it could be I suppose – the chance of a No 1 and all that. I can imagine her record company stressing the importance of another bit of promotion on the UK’s premier music show to give the single that extra push. However, one thing doesn’t ring true – I checked the date when Celine got married. It was the 17th December 1994. Now given that this TOTP aired on 19th January 1995, that meant she’d been on honeymoon for over a month by this point! Really?! Well, she did marry one René Angélil who was her manager so I guess nobody was better placed to authorise an extended holiday for her than him!

And so to this week’s No 1 and it’s the same record as the last time I posted on this blog – “Cotton Eye Joe” by Rednex.

Look, I’ve got nothing left for this one so here’s Beavis and Butt-head’s take on it…

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Ultimate KAOS	Hoochie Booty	Nah
2	Massive Attack	Protection	Negative
3	Ini Kamoze	Here Comes The Hotstepper	No but I think my wife may have
4	Sleeper	Inbetweener	Liked it, didn’t buy it
5	The Human League	Tell Me When	Nope
6	Barry White	Practice What You Preach	No
7	Celine Dion	Think Twice	No thought required – no
8	Rednex	Cotton Eye Joe	As if

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agre

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001qgbk/top-of-the-pops-19011995

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

Author: 80stastic

TOTP 30 MAR 1995

Disclaimer

TOTP 23 MAR 1995

Disclaimer

TOTP 16 MAR 1995

Disclaimer

TOTP 09 MAR 1995

Disclaimer

TOTP 02 MAR 1995

Disclaimer

TOTP 23 FEB 1995

Disclaimer

TOTP 16 FEB 1995

Disclaimer

TOTP 02 FEB 1995

Disclaimer

TOTP 26 JAN 1995

Disclaimer

TOTP 19 JAN 1995

Disclaimer